Hostage
by RockQueen98
Summary: Seth Rollins is simply a seventeen-year-old boy living with his family. He went to school every day, avoided bullies, and spent most of his time at home. It was certainly nothing exciting, and nothing new ever happened. That was, of course, until he ran into a gang named Justice and found himself being held for ransom.
1. Encounter

**A/N: **So this idea has been running through my head for the last week or so, and I just had to write this alongside the other fanfiction I'm working on! So I'm not too sure how often the updates will be, but I'll try to update as regularly as possible.

**Please note that I am British, so I do apologise for any terms which aren't used in America!**

I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

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><p>Hostage<p>

Chapter One – Encounter

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><p>Seth Rollins was a fairly small, seventeen-year-old boy, with shoulder-length wavy brown hair, with the right side bleached blonde. He lived a fairly ordinary life with his family in a rather nice house, and walked to school and saw his two friends Corey and Bayley every day at school – where he was mildly bullied due to his 'nerdy' nature and his like for comics, books, and anime. He did luckily have his friends to back him up, however, and despite it upsetting him in previous years, he had gotten used to it and just shrugged most of it off as teasing.<p>

It was the same thing every single day. He'd wake up, shower, feed the dogs, have his own breakfast, go to school, come home, have his dinner, and entertained himself until he had to go to bed. It was fairly tiresome, and he just wanted something _exciting _to happen for once, something which could just make him feel happy again. Because, right now, the lack of fun in his life was just bringing him down, as were his parents strictness when it came to what he had to study, and what he had to do with his life. It was like they only cared about Seth making them looked good, in a way.

"Seth, are you okay?" his friend Bayley asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. Bayley and Corey exchanged looks before they both looked back at Seth.

"You've just seemed really... Down, lately. Is anything the matter?"

"It's not about Sami still, is it?" Corey questioned, and Seth quickly shook his head.

"No, it's not."

_Yes, it is._

Well, partly. Sami had brought that spark back into Seth's life – in a whole different way than he had ever experienced. Sami was his first ever boyfriend, and it had always seemed like it was going to last. They spent so much time together, even though they were only with each other for a couple of months. They had a connection – at least, that's what Seth thought. But soon enough, he had a text from Sami saying he felt like it wasn't going to work and that they should break up. Seth was devastated, naturally, especially by how it wasn't said to his face, or at least during a phone call. But he wanted what's best for Sami, and so decided to just try and not dwell on it and move on. This is hard, however, when the person you thought cared about you became friends with the very people who choose to bully you, and laughs when those people mock you for being gay.

It hurt, of course it did. He thought he could trust Sami, and even if Sami thought that they wouldn't work out he would have still cared for Seth, or at least show an ounce of respect for him. But that wasn't the case, and that hurt Seth more than anything else could.

It even made him find it hard to believe that there _would _be a guy someday who wouldn't be like Sami, who would love Seth and care about him. Sami's betrayal lowered Seth's confidence a huge lot, and he knew it was going to be a long time before he got it back – he had never been a very confident person to start with, so now he wasn't sure if he even had any left.

"Are you sure? You can talk to us about it."

He knew his friends meant well, but he hated talking about his feelings. His caring nature had made him turn into the kind of person who would always put others before himself, and would hardly ever talk to people about his own problems. He often felt like a burden expressing his own feelings, and was scared his friends, his two only friends, would be annoyed and think he's whining.

Part of him knew it was nonsense, but more of him believed it.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it," Seth smiled.

That's it – put on a smile when in reality, all you want to do is lock yourself in your room away from everyone else and just cry until you have nothing left.

"Alright, if you say so," Corey smiled back. "Are you two up to anything this weekend?"

"I don't have anything planned," said Bayley.

"What about you, Seth?"

_You already know that I don't._

"No, I haven't," he said instead.

"How about the three of us hang around my house this weekend, and play video games and whatever?" he suggested.

"Sure, I'll come!" Bayley exclaimed.

"Why not?" Seth shrugged. _It's better than just staying at home, I suppose._

He did love his friends, he really did. They were kind, funny, and fun to be around. But there was always that voice nagging at the back of his head, telling him that they didn't like him, that they found him boring, that they secretly didn't want to be friends with him but were because they felt sorry for him.

Again, part of him knew it was nonsense, but there was another part of him which believed it.

His mood wasn't much better when he was at home that night, and after spending a couple of hours in his bedroom, decided to go out for a walk to pass the time.

"Where are you going, Seth?" his mother asked as he grabbed his jacket.

"I'm just going out for a walk, I won't be long," he replied as he opened the front door.

"Alright, but make sure you come back soon – it's getting dark."

"I'll be fine."

He stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him. He put his earphones in his ears, before he began to walk down the street. He didn't really care about where he was going – he just wanted to pass the time and clear his head. After several minutes of walking, he turned round a corner to find Sami and his new friends standing there, laughing. He cursed silently when they turned around and noticed them. They all grinned in amusement – Seth didn't have Corey and Bayley with him this time.

"Well well, look who it is," the 'leader' of the group, said. "All alone, too."

"Shouldn't you be all warm in your bed, reading your comics?" another one said.

"He must be feeling adventurous, coming out into the actual world like this!" Sami chuckled, and the others joined in with his laughter. Ouch. He could brush off words that the others said – but Sami was different.

"Where's your boyfriend to protect you from all of the big bad guys out there? Oh wait... Of course, you don't have one, do you?"

The laughter increased, and Seth breathed in deeply as he tried to stop the tears from forming in his eyes. He slowly took a few steps back, wanting to get away from them – especially Sami – as soon as possible.

"Oh, where are you going?" the leader said, walking forward. "We haven't finished talking to you yet."

But he had finished listening.

His pace quickened to a run as he tried to get away from them as soon as possible. He was a fast runner despite his size but it didn't matter anyway – they didn't bother to chase after him and he could hear their laughter in the distance. He still kept running, however, with the intention of getting as far away as possible. He ran down the streets, ignoring the stares from people walking by, before he turned into an alleyway and stopped halfway, catching his breath.

Panic went through him when he realised he had no idea where he had actually ran to. He breathed deeply, wondering what to do until he saw a girl and a guy standing a little further down the alley. He plucked up his courage to walk closer to them and ask them if they could give him directions – but stopped when he overheard what they were discussing.

"John and Daniel are heading back to us now, and then we're going to head back to discuss the plan."

"All we need now is to work out how to get past the guards – after that, it's all good."

Oh, shit. That didn't sound good at all. Seth took a few steps back slowly, and gasped when his foot came in contact with a tin on the floor. The noise made the two people looked over at Seth, and before he could move he was being pressed against the wall by the man.

"How much of that did you hear?" the brunette hissed.

"I didn't hear any of it, I swear!" Seth cried.

"We can't take any chances, not with this," the woman said. Just then, two men walked round the corner, who Seth presumed to be John and Daniel.

"Who is this kid?" the larger one asked as they both walked closer.

"He was listening to our conversation, he was," the man who was holding onto him said. "I don't know how much he heard."

"Fuck, we can't have him going off and telling people about this," the smaller of the two men said.

"I won't tell anyone, I swear! Just let me go, please!"

"Shut up!"

Seth cried out in pain as he was pressed into the wall harder. He wished for somebody, _anybody, _to see what was happening, but no one came and it was now completely dark out.

"How much do you think he could be worth?" the woman said. She walked closer to Seth and reached into his pocket for his phone. She looked at it, smiling. "Judging by how new this is, probably a lot."

Seth gulped, too scared to say a word. What was that supposed to mean?

"You just may have found a good way around this, Brie," the man smiled, as pulled Seth around so his side was pressed against the wall rather than his back. "John, tie his hands behind his back. I'm not taking any chances."

"Wait, please-"

He was stopped by the man roughly covering Seth's mouth with his large hand. He smiled psychotically, and Seth's eyes widened in horror as he felt John tie the ropes tightly around his wrists behind his back.

"None of that," the man said quietly, the smirk never leaving his face. "It just seems like we could get a bit of money out of you. It's nothing personal. Now, I'm going to take my hand away from your pretty little face now. If you even try and scream for help, there's going to be disastrous consequences before anyone will even hear you. Understand me?"

Seth nodded in understanding – what else could he do? He didn't want to even think about the 'disastrous consequences' that could potentially happen to him.

"That's a good boy," he smiled, releasing his hand from Seth's mouth. He patted Seth's shaven cheek before turning around to Daniel, gesturing to the corner of the alley. "Go around and bring the car through there so no one sees us."

"Sure thing," Daniel nodded, quickly walking around the corner. The man holding onto Seth pulled him closer, his smirk growing.

"Come on, kid, we're going on a trip."

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><p>To say that Seth was scared would be a complete understatement. He had never been so terrified in his life. He was in the back seat of a car, his hands tied behind his back with no idea of whom these people were or where they were going. The man, who was the only one he didn't yet know the name of, was also too close for comfort. He seemed to find it amusing to place his hand on Seth's thigh and watch Seth jump horribly.<p>

"Dean, stop playing with him," Brie said after a while. So Dean was the man's name... Knowing the name of Seth's captor didn't really make him feel much better.

"Awe, come on, I'm bored," he laughed.

"We're almost there now – just be patient," said Daniel from the driver's seat.

"But how can I resist? I mean, look how pretty he is!"

Seth yelped as Dean's hand went a little higher up his leg, making the man laugh.

"Dean, the guy is scared enough as it is," said John. "You seriously are a horrible person."

"I'm just teasing, lighten up," Dean said, finally removing his hand from Seth's thigh, making him sigh in relief.

"Roman's not going to want you keeping an eye on him if you play with him like that, Dean," said Brie. "We're not like the so-called Authority. We don't use them as toys – we just do what's necessary."

"I know, come on, I've stopped," Dean said, raising his hands. "I'll be on my best behaviour, I swear."

"You better be," said John. "We're here now, so don't even do anything else."

Daniel pulled up by a building, out of the way from public. It didn't exactly look like it was in best condition – and Seth guessed that it wasn't going to be much better on the inside. Dean pulled Seth out of the car by his arm and closed the door behind him with his free hand.

"Come on, princess," Dean chuckled, and kept his hand on Seth's arm while they walked over to the building. John typed in some sort of password to open the door, and they stepped inside. Seth was actually... Well, surprised. It looked a lot neater than he expected. There was also a few more people than he imagined would be here – but it seemed like his captors focus was on a rather muscular man, who was talking to a small girl with long dark brown hair. He had a tribal style tattooed sleeve on one arm and also had rather long, dark hair.

"Roman, look what we have!" Dean called, bringing Seth slightly closer to his side. The large man turned, and looked Seth up and down.

"Who's this kid?" he asked.

"He was listening in on our conversation," Dean explained. "It was Brie's idea to bring him here."

"What's his name?"

"I don't even know," Dean said, looking at Seth. "What _is _your name?"

"S-Seth... Seth Rollins," he said quietly.

"Seth Rollins, huh?" Roman said. He looked down at the girl still standing next to him. "AJ, go and look up this guy, see what you can find."

"Will do," she said, and sat down at a computer in the corner.

"I told you guys to be more careful, though," Roman sighed. "You never know who could be listening – for all we know, he could have been part of the Authority. He still could be."

"Nah, no one's that good at acting," Dean laughed, patting Seth on the back. "He was scared out of his wits."

"I don't blame him, with how you can be, Ambrose," Roman said. "He's not even going to try and run away now; he doesn't even know where he is, and there are too many people here. You might as well untie his hands."

"You're the boss," said Dean, and bent down so he could untie the ropes. "God, you're small. I'm going to ruin my back doing this shit. You didn't have to tie them this tightly, John."

"We weren't taking any chances," John shrugged.

"It's no wonder the guy was terrified," said Roman. "It's alright – we're not going to hurt you."

Seth blinked at Roman in shock. He had been taken by what was clearly some sort of gang, and this man must have been their leader or something... And he was actually speaking to him kindly?

"Who's going to be keeping an eye on him?" Roman then asked, looking between the people in the group who brought Seth there.

"If you want Daniel and I-"

"I will," Dean interrupted her.

"You sure? I mean, you're already busy enough as it is," Roman said, raising an eyebrow.

"Nah, it's fine. I don't mind."

Roman looked at Dean with curiosity – normally, he wouldn't bother to offer to do extra things for the gang. As Dean was what he liked to call the 'second leader', he was often in charge of the plans they did outside of the headquarters, while Roman was more in charge inside. Dean normally avoided doing extra work that anyone in the gang was capable of doing themselves.

"He finds the kid 'pretty'," Brie grinned when she saw Roman's confusion.

"Well, he is! Look at him!" Dean exclaimed, patting Seth on the back once again. "I seriously don't care about keeping an eye on him – it's not a big deal."

"Roman, I've got something!" AJ called from the corner. Dean tugged on Seth's arm to motion for him to come with them. They surrounded the computer, and looked at the screen. "Seems like you come from a fairly rich family."

"You were right, Brie," Daniel smiled.

"How much do you think we could get out of him?" AJ asked, looking up at Roman.

"A fair amount, I would say," Roman observed. "But we'll keep him for a few days; see what his parents do then."

"If Dean doesn't mind keeping him that long, that is," John said.

"Like I said, I don't care."

"Then we'll stick to that plan," said Roman. He pulled up his sleeve to look at his watch. "It's getting a bit late – you better take him to yours."

"Sure."

"Watch out for anyone from the Authority," he said, his voice low. "If they saw you with him they'd start to question who he is, and if they find out he's worth something, they'll try and take him from us. Not only would we miss out on the money, but God knows how they'd treat the poor guy – especially with their new buddy Lesnar... And we know how Orton can be. So you need to be careful."

"Don't worry, I will be," Dean replied, and this was the first time Seth had heard him speak so seriously. Roman nodded, and Dean gestured for Seth to come with him. "Let's go."

Seth kept close to Dean when they exited the building. Not only did he know that it would have been utterly useless to run away as he wouldn't even know where to run away _to, _he was also fairly worried about these 'Authority' people. Were they another gang? Judging by the sounds of it, they were a lot less... Caring? He didn't really know what word to use to describe whatever this gang was called. They were certainly a lot less scary now than they were when he was being threatened in the alleyway.

"You look freezing," said Dean, looking at Seth in his t-shirt. Before he could say anything, Dean had handed him his own hoodie. "I don't feel the cold much."

Dean even opened the door to the passenger seat for him once Seth had put on the jacket, though that was probably to make sure that Seth wasn't going to try to get away. Dean closed the door after Seth, and walked round to the other side to the driver's seat. He started the engine, and they were soon driving to wherever he lived.

"It's not far," Dean said, noticing that Seth was looking fairly worn out. It was no wonder. "You can sleep there."

Seth nodded, still too nervous to say anything else. All he had said since he arrived here was his name – even if he _did _have the confidence to say more, he wasn't sure if Dean would be happy with it.

A few minutes later, Dean chuckled.

"You're really not that talkative, are you?"

"W-Well, I..."

What could he say? That he was too scared to say anything at all? Luckily, Dean seemed to understand.

"I don't blame you if you're still scared. You'll be back home in a few days," Dean said, as he stopped the car outside of an apartment block. "It's not as fancy as what you probably live in, I know."

Dean stepped out of the car, but stopped Seth before he even had a chance to put one foot out of it. The man walked around to his side, and opened the door.

"Put your hood up," Dean said in a very quiet voice, his eyes looking left to right. "I can't see any of them, but I'm not taking any chances."

Seth nodded, and pulled the hood over his head before he stepped out of the car. Dean locked it, and they both walked over to the apartments. They climbed up a few flights of stairs, after Dean explained how awful the elevator was. He paused before opening the door to the apartment, and smirked at Seth.

"What is it?" Seth asked, surprised that he managed to stop himself from stuttering.

"My jacket is huge on you. It's fucking adorable."

Seth blushed slightly and didn't even have a chance to respond before Dean opened the door. The man gestured for Seth to go in, which he did so.

"Sorry you're not going to be staying in some sort of luxury hotel," Dean said as he locked the door. But Seth actually didn't mind the place – it was fairly small, and it was fairly messy, but it seemed fairly cosy. It had a living area, a kitchen joined with it, and three doors leading to other rooms. "I have a room you can stay in."

Dean opened one of the doors, and it was quite unlike he expected to be staying in earlier that evening. It had a single bed in there which looked relatively comfy – especially compared to what else he could be sleeping on in this situation.

"Give me a second," Dean said, and quickly walked into another room. He came back with a t-shirt, and threw it into Seth's arms. "You can sleep in this if you want. If you're thinking about escaping, there's honestly no point."

Dean grinned, and pointed at the window in the bedroom.

"We're several floors up, so you can't really go out of there, and the door's locked. I'd just sleep if I were you."

Seth nodded. That's what he had planned to do anyway – he was exhausted from what he had dealt with that night, and he was still very nervous. Dean closed the door after him, leaving Seth in the room alone. He took off his clothes, folded them and placed them on the end of the bed, before putting on Dean's t-shirt. Like the jacket, it was huge. Rubbing his arms because of the cold, he quickly jumped into the bed and closed his eyes, completely unsure of what was going to happen tomorrow.

He had wanted something exciting to happen in his life – but this was the complete opposite of what he had in mind.

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><p><strong>AN: **I really enjoyed writing this, it's probably one of the most fun ones I've written!

I hope you're liking the story so far, and feel free to leave your thoughts so far in a review. I would love to hear what you guys have to say!

Anyway, thanks for reading, I'll try to update in about a week or so.

I always keep a word count of my chapters when I work on them in my profile, so if you ever wonder how much I've written, you can always check there. Thanks again!


	2. Justice

**A/N: **This is such a quick update for me... Wow.

Thanks for the reviews and such on the first chapter! I don't think I've ever gotten that much attention on a story so quickly. I'm probably not going to be updating as regularly as this for long, but I'll try my best to update as often as possible - I don't like to keep people waiting on either of my stories.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

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><p>Hostage<p>

Chapter Two - Justice

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><p>Seth's eyes slowly fluttered open. He yawned, and then gasped when he saw his surroundings. He sat up quickly, looking around the room in shock. He then realised what had actually happened to him the night before, and somehow, he relaxed a little. At least he knew where he was... Well, actually, he didn't.<p>

All he knew was that he was in Dean Ambrose's apartment, after he had been kidnapped by a gang who was planning to hold him for ransom. He had no idea where he was, and no idea how far away from home he was. He hadn't been able to estimate how long the car journey to the gang's headquarters was – he had been far too terrified to even think about judging how long it took. But, now, he felt a lot more relaxed... Sure, he was naturally still very nervous. But a lot of the fear had reduced since he was first confronted by them.

He got out of the bed when he heard someone – he guessed Dean – walking around the apartment. He slowly made his way to the door, and breathed in deeply before he opened it. He looked over to see Dean already dressed in a pair of scruffy blue jeans and a white vest. He was stood in the kitchen, seemingly making breakfast, which was weird to Seth – for some reason, he presumed that Dean didn't eat breakfast. Or, at least didn't have much time to eat it. The man turned around even though Seth was sure he didn't make any noise.

"Oh, morning sunshine," he smirked. "Sit down over there, if you want."

He gestured to the sofa in the living area. Seth nodded and sat down, watching Dean as he started buttering some toast. He then, to Seth's surprise, handed the plate to him.

"Here, take it," he said. Seth hesitated, before taking the plate from him.

"T-Thank you..." he mumbled. Dean shrugged, and put another two slices of bread in the toaster before pouring some water into a kettle.

"Want some coffee?" he asked. Seth shook his head. "Anything else you want to drink?"

"Water's fine," he replied, his voice still quiet. Dean nodded and took a bottle of water out of the fridge, and handed it to Seth. He thanked Dean, who simply shrugged once more. A few minutes later, he was sat down on the other side of the sofa with a mug of coffee and a plate of toast.

"You haven't eaten much," said Dean, nodding at Seth's plate. He had only nibbled at one of the halves.

"I'm sorry, I'm just..."

"Nervous? Yeah, I can tell," Dean chuckled, taking a sip of his coffee. "Maybe I was a bit too rough with you yesterday."

Seth stayed silent, unsure of what to say. He didn't exactly want to say he agrees with Dean – even though he did. Luckily, he didn't have to say anything himself, as Dean spoke again.

"I thought my jacket was big on you... But that t-shirt is fucking gigantic."

Seth suddenly felt extremely embarrassed. Even though the t-shirt covered them, all he was wearing underneath it was his boxers, though Dean didn't say anything about this and continued talking.

"So how old are you, anyway?" he asked, taking a bite of his toast.

"S-Seventeen..." he asked, looking away from Dean's gaze. When he looked back, Dean was still staring at him.

"Seriously?" he said. "I thought you'd be sixteen... Maybe even younger. You sure are small."

Seth didn't say anything, but did end up yet again blushing from Dean's next comment.

"You're so fucking cute."

He continued to stay silent, and started eating more of his toast awkwardly. Dean noticed his embarrassment and grinned, and seemed like he was going to say something else until his phone rang.

"What's up, Roman?" Dean said, sipping his coffee. "Yeah, he's fine. He's eating breakfast."

Dean smirked at Seth as he said that, before laughing.

"No, you idiot, I made it for him. Don't sound so surprised."

He paused as he listened to what Roman was saying, and his smile faltered.

"It sounds like we're going to have to go with the plan early," he said. "But what about Seth?"

Dean got up from the sofa, his expression now completely serious.

"No, I'm not fucking leaving him in the apartment. Not even with the door locked. What if they come here? My apartment is quite easier to find than headquarters. I'm not chancing it."

He began to pace around the room as he continued to listen to what Roman was saying. Seth was rather surprised that this was as big of a deal as it was – he had expected to just be kept in Dean's apartment until they got in contact with his parents. Instead, Dean was actually acting _protective._

"Look, I know that. But can I just leave him at headquarters while I get the job done? He'll be safer there if he's with you and whoever's staying behind."

Dean stopped, suddenly looking a little annoyed.

"I'm not just dumping him on you! If I cared that little about this situation, I would have went along with your previous suggestion and just left him here. You said yourself that we need to keep him away from the Authority – I'm not keeping him here on his own when one of those bastards could knock the door down any minute and find him."

He paused, before sitting back down on the sofa, looking a lot more relaxed.

"Thanks. We'll head down there now," he said, ending the call. He gulped down the rest of his coffee, before grinning at Seth. "Hurry up, kid, and get some pants on. We're heading off."

Seth's blush increased as he grabbed the bottle of water, but left the plate of toast. He looked at Dean apologetically, but the man merely shrugged and grabbed it himself. He quickly put the plates and the mug in the sink as he ate the rest of Seth's toast, grabbed a bag from the floor, and then went to the door to unlock it. Meanwhile, Seth headed back into the spare room and put his pair of jeans on from the previous day. He knew they were in a rush, so left Dean's t-shirt on and quickly threw on Dean's hoodie. When he joined Dean in the corridor outside the apartment, he had already put the hood up.

"You're getting in the motion of things already, princess," Dean chuckled as he locked the door. They made their way down the staircases, and quickly round the corner to where Dean had parked the car.

As they were driving, though he was nervous, Seth still had a couple of things on his mind and plucked up the courage to ask.

"T-These Authority people..." he started. "...What makes them so dangerous? And why is it so important that I'm kept away from them?"

Dean sighed, brushing his hair back.

"They're certainly not the sort of people you want to mess with," he explained. "We do things because we have to, and only what's necessary. Sure, I played around with you a bit yesterday – but that isn't a common thing with us, I assure you. That's just me having a slight bit of fun, and doesn't do any harm. But the Authority? They're not like that. They take pleasure out of what they do, without caring about the harm they cause to innocent people. We might be holding you for ransom – but they'd be much worse."

He sighed once more, glancing at Seth.

"Someone as small as you would barely last there. The small ones are always treated the worse. They take advantage of the ones like you. That Lesnar and Orton we were talking about yesterday? They're two of the worse. Lesnar is definitely not scared of hurting you, and Orton? He's just twisted. We haven't held many people hostage, but we make sure that those we do don't fall into their hands. I guess that's one of the reasons we called ourselves 'Justice'. They hate us, and we hate them."

"How did you even come across each other?" Seth asked, shuddering at how awful this other gang sounded. "Was it just simply because you ran in to each other while you were... Doing whatever you do?"

"No, it's more complicated than that," Dean said, stopping the car around the corner from the headquarters. "Look, you just need to know that we just need to keep you away from them. You'll be fine – we're only keeping you with us for a few days."

He opened the door and stepped out, as Seth did the same. Dean quickly grabbed Seth's arm to stop him when he was about to head in the direction where they walked yesterday.

"Not that way," Dean said quietly. "It's broad daylight now – it's best to go this way."

Seth nodded, and the two of them made their way behind a few crumbling buildings and down an alleyway to the headquarters. Dean quickly scanned the area, making sure they weren't followed, before typing out the password. He motioned for Seth to enter first, before he followed the smaller boy inside.

"So this is Seth, huh?" a man with bleached-blonde hair said, looking him up and down. "It's no wonder you're so concerned about keeping him safe."

"I'm not taking any chances with him at all, Dolph," Dean nodded. He looked over at the others, who were sat at a table. "Seems like we're discussing what we're going to do?"

"Yeah, Roman wants to make sure we all know what we're doing," Dolph explained.

"Makes sense," said Dean. He turned to Seth, grinning. "Come on, princess."

They made their way over to the table, and sat down in the available chairs. Well, Dolph and Dean did – Seth was pulled down into his as he wasn't sure if he should be sat with them or not.

"Alright, we're-"

Roman sighed when he noticed Seth sitting awkwardly next to Dean.

"Really, Dean? There's keeping him safe and then there's looking after him like he's a new-born puppy. He doesn't have to sit with us."

"Come on, what's he going to do if he hears the plan?" Dean laughed. "He's just going to be here through all of it anyway."

"Fine, whatever... Let's just get on with this," said Roman. "Right, it's already obvious that we can't just charge in there – not only are Lesnar and Kane a match for all of us, we can't let ourselves be seen. If we're going to do this, we're going to do this secretly. Luckily, they were clearly too busy planning out what they are going to do next to actually take the time to find our base – we've already found there's, as you already know. So those who will be staying behind won't be in any danger."

"Who's staying behind?" asked Daniel.

"I'm getting to that now. AJ will obviously have to stay behind so she can hack into their locking system and their alarms – but she has a limited time to do that, and so we need as few people going there as possible. John, you'll be going, just in case the others get caught and they need backup – same with Dean. I didn't want to make you go because of Kane and Lesnar being on guard, but Brie, you're needed to actually get their plans. You have the smallest build out of us after AJ, so you can easily get inside quietly, unlike some of us. Daniel, do you want to go with her just in case she needs backing up? You're the best for the job after her."

"Yeah, of course I will," he said.

"Ziggler, you'll be there in case they get themselves in a dangerous situation and you have to distract them – I know that you're smart enough to figure something out. Punk, you go with him."

Both men nodded in understanding.

"That leaves the rest of us here. All of you will be connected to us via headsets and cameras, just in case you get in any trouble. Any questions?"

"Do we know for sure if their plans are actually stored there?" asked Punk. "I don't think we should go through with this if we don't know for _certain._"

"There's a chance that not all of them are stored there – but there is definitely at least one of their plans is there. The more we know of what they're doing, the better. Any other questions?"

The others shook their heads, and Roman grinned.

"We'll set off tonight – I just wanted to make sure that everyone was sure of what we are doing and what their role is. For now, I recommend you all set up any weapons you want to take, eat if you haven't had anything yet and if you're tired, for fuck's sake, _sleep. _I'm not having anyone messing this up because they haven't got the energy."

Everyone began to leave the table, though Dean was still sitting, and seemed to have just thought of a question to ask now.

"I know that people are staying behind – but they'll be able to keep an eye on Seth too, won't they?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's fine," Roman answered. "Don't worry about it. We're several steps ahead of the Authority anyway – they have still yet to set up their new security cameras after they moved base, we know where they are, and they don't even have a clue whereabouts we are. They're not going to come here."

"I'm just making sure," Dean said, getting up out of his chair. "Come on, Seth, you can stay with me for now."

Seth nodded, and got out of his own chair. He hadn't spoken to anyone else – apart from when he gave his name to Roman – and didn't want to be around them just yet.

He followed Dean through a different door, leading to another room he didn't realise was there. There were a few of the members in this room, and it was quite clear it was some sort of training room. There were weights, a few machines which were being used by people he didn't know the name of, punching bags – one of which was being used by Brie, and a couple of dummies which Seth could see were used as targets.

"Pretty impressive for just a gang, right?" Dean chuckled, practically speaking Seth's mind.

"I didn't realise it would be like this," Seth replied, looking around the room in shock.

"Well, we have been together for years. We've been able to afford this," Dean said. He put down his bag on a container, and pulled out a pistol. "We've had a lot of experience, and we work together. It's why that fucking Authority hasn't taken us down yet."

Seth jumped when Dean shot the gun at one of the dummies away from the other members, hitting it right in the head. Seth was still staring it in awe when Dean continued talking.

"They do still have skill though, and that's why you have to be careful around them. Otherwise you'll find yourself..."

He quickly took out a knife and grabbed Seth from behind, pointing the knife at his throat.

"...Dead."

He let go of Seth, and laughed at how scared the boy looked.

"That's how quick you've got to be. They can be smart, and when you're up against men the size that Lesnar and Kane are, you've got to be careful."

"You don't seem to be worried about anyone else than these guys," said Seth.

"Anyone else? Oh, you mean like the cops. Of course," said Dean as he began to sharpen his knife. "Sure, we've had a bit of problem with them, but not so much. You've probably already guessed that this is a fairly rough area, and crime isn't exactly uncommon. We're more bothered about stopping the Authority anyway, than committing crimes as much as they do."

Seth was still fairly unsure about what Dean was saying. They were obviously a gang, and judging by how they didn't hesitate to take Seth as hostage, didn't care that much about committing crime. And yet they seemed more bothered about what the Authority does – was that normal? Perhaps it was just a rivalry that had been happening over the years, and this is what it had become.

"Why is so urgent that you do the plan today?" Seth asked, watching as Dean continued to sharpen the knife.

"Because they're bringing in security cameras soon," Dean said, inspecting his work. "They had to move bases and not had chance to set them up yet. Sure, AJ can hack into them – she's brilliant at it – but they'd notice as they would always have someone keeping watch of them. So, if we go now before they even have the cameras set up, and they have no idea that we know where they are, it would be best. All we have to do is try not to get seen by Lesnar or Kane, who are normally on guard."

"Was this what you were talking about yesterday?"

Dean laughed and shook his head.

"Nah, that's something completely different. This plan is much more important – but the one you were overhearing is... Well, more of a crime, so we didn't want you to go blabbing to people."

Seth nodded in understanding. He was actually shocked at himself for how quickly he had calmed down with his fear and nerves. He thought this whole scenario would have been worse... _A lot _worse. But here he was, having a conversation from the very man who was pinning him to a wall in the alley and was actually feeling fairly comfortable in his presence. He thought that he would be locked in a room with not enough food or water, and barely anything to sleep on, treated like a proper _prisoner._

Perhaps that is how it would have been if he had been taken by the Authority rather than Justice. He shuddered, finding himself being grateful that at least he wasn't in their hands instead.

"You seem a lot more talkative than you were yesterday," Dean observed, grinning. "You were a trembling wreck."

"Well..." Seth started, unsure of what to say.

"I guess you thought you were going to be treated a lot worse than this, huh?"

"I did, actually," he admitted.

"Well, like I said, we're not like the Authority," said Dean, putting his knife through his belt before covering it with his t-shirt. "We're just keeping you until your parents come and get you – for whatever price they offer. We don't want to cause you any pain or severe discomfort, there's no need."

Seth could see the reason behind Dean's words – and yet, it was still strange for him to believe. Even if they weren't as bad as Justice seemed to be, he thought it would be at least a _little _worse. He was getting treated perfectly normally, and he no longer felt scared, or perhaps not even nervous, around Dean.

"So let's make sure you're kept away from them, huh?" Dean grinned.

"If they realised that I was being held for ransom, is it certain that they would try to... Come after me?" Seth asked, the thought making him feel very uncomfortable. Dean paused for a minute, trying to think of what to say without scaring Seth more.

"...Well, if they believed that you were worth something, yes," Dean said, brushing back his messy short hair. "If they knew we were keeping you for that reason, then they would most likely presume that they could get money out of you, as, like I said before, we don't hold people for ransom very often. But as long as it isn't obvious why you're here, and we do our best to keep you out of their sight, you'll be alright. Even if they see you with me, they might just think you're a new member. So don't worry about it."

"Right... Okay," Seth replied. Dean could see that the boy was still feeling uneasy, and put a hand on Seth's shoulder, sighing.

"Look, you'll be alright. You might not be able to trust me, I wouldn't blame you, but it'll be fine. They don't know where I live, and they don't know about this base, so they probably won't even see you. It's fine, okay?"

Seth nodded, and Dean took his hand off his shoulder. He did feel better hearing that – though he found it amusing that he had to be comforted by the man who had taken him in the first place.

"And if they do even try to lay a hand on you?" Dean smirked, reaching for his gun. He pointed it at the dummy and barely even looked at it before shooting a bullet right through its chest.

That was the moment that Seth was sure that he was safe.

* * *

><p>That night, the members who weren't out on the mission were crowded around AJ's computer, as well as a laptop Roman was using besides her. AJ was in the process of hacking into the Authority's alarm and locking system, while Roman was connected to the members' cameras attached to the headset. Seth was sat with them, naturally, staring at the setup in awe. It was very cleverly done.<p>

"Wait there, Dean and John," Roman said, bringing his mic connected to the laptop closer to his mouth. "I can see Lesnar through your camera. We don't want to let you be seen unless it's necessary. Brie, Daniel – go round behind the back. Dolph and Punk, you both follow them just in case Kane is round the back."

"I'm almost in," said AJ. "I might not have much time to keep it off, though. You're going to have to be quick."

"There's no Kane," said Brie quietly, looking around.

"Yeah, that's because he's round the front," said Dean, backing behind his cover a little more. "He's talking with Lesnar. It seems like they're not expecting anyone to be here."

"Well, they're completely wrong," Roman said.

"Alright, I'm in!" said AJ, sighing in relief. "You only have about ten minutes, though."

"That's all we need," Brie whispered, pushing open the back door quietly, and closed it after them. She and Daniel crept through the room silently; eyes wide open for anyone who might have been in there. Luckily, it was empty.

"They should be near that computer over there," Roman said quietly. They made their way over to it, and Brie picked up some pieces of paper.

"These are just diagrams and maps. We can't get anything from this without any proper plans," she whispered.

"But look here," Daniel whispered back, and pulled out a pen drive from the computer.

"That must be where the notes are!" Roman said. "Get yourselves out of there with all of that, quickly."

"Wait, Kane is heading round to the back!" Dean hissed.

"It's fine – we don't want to distract them unless it's necessary. Dolph, Punk, don't do anything," said Roman. "Head out of that window up there. You can drop out on the opposite side of where Kane is."

"Daniel, give me a boost," Brie whispered, and she hoisted herself onto the window ledge. She carefully pushed open the window, and reached down to help Bryan up next to her. She jumped onto the ground first, though Daniel landed a little heavier and Lesnar seemed to have very good hearing.

"Who's there?" his voice boomed into the silence.

"Shit, get out of there _now!"_ Roman hissed.

"He's spotted us!" Brie said, backing away in horror when Lesnar reached into his jacket pocket.

"I've got this," Dean said. He aimed his gun at Lesnar, and pulled the trigger. He missed the chest due to the distance and the speed he had to shoot – but the bullet still buried itself into Lesnar's shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain and kneel to the ground. Dean took a step forward, though John stopped him.

"We have to move!" he hissed, looking over at Daniel and Brie, who had already ran past them unharmed. "Kane's coming this way now."

"All of you head back here, quickly," Roman ordered. Dean sighed, but still followed the others out of there. A few minutes later, they were back at the base.

"That was a close call," AJ sighed.

"Lesnar's not going to be pleased that you managed to get him, Dean," said Daniel.

"Well, I wasn't having him shooting one of you," he said. "But come on, we did it! Sure, we had a little run-in with Lesnar, but it could have gone worse."

"Let's have a look at these, then," said AJ, as she put the pen drive into the computer. She sighed when she saw that she needed a password. "I'm too exhausted for this."

"It's fine, AJ, don't worry," Roman smiled. "We can look through it tomorrow."

"I guess I'll be getting off home, I'm fairly tired myself," said Dean. He looked over at Seth, smiling. "Glad to see this one's alright."

"Of course he is," said Roman. "Go on, you need your rest. Be careful on your way back, though. I don't want you getting seen."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Dean said. "Come on, princess."

They both left and headed over to the car, Dean looking around cautiously all the way.

"You really are careful," said Seth, holding onto the hood of his jacket.

"I'm not going to be the one who gets us in trouble," Dean replied, getting into the car. Seth got in on the other side, and they began to make their way back.

The members of Justice seemed to look out for each other a lot – more than Seth would have ever guessed. He had never seen such focused teamwork before in his life. It didn't seem to be just for the work they did either. It seemed like the members truly cared about each other's safety, perhaps even more so than their work.

Dean parked the car behind the apartment block, and the two of them made their way up the stairs and into Dean's apartment.

"I'm sorry about how late we got back here," said Dean, putting his bag down on the sofa. "Do you want anything else to sleep in?"

"I'm fine," said Seth, shaking his head and yawning. "I just want to get to bed now."

"Alright, see you in the morning."

"Goodnight," Seth smiled. Dean nodded, and headed over to his bedroom.

Seth was soon lying in the bed of the spare room, staring up at the ceiling. For some strange reason, he was feeling _happy. _He didn't know why – but still felt like he was being cared for, something which he didn't normally feel. Perhaps it was how protective Dean was over him. Sure, it could have just been business and they didn't want to lose out on money... But Dean's main concern seemed to be mainly Seth getting into trouble with the Authority. That must mean, even if it was only a little, that Dean cared.

Seth soon shut his eyes, and it wasn't long before he had fallen fast asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Did I mention how much I'm enjoying writing this? Like seriously.

I hope you're all enjoying the story so far! Please leave a review on your thoughts if you have the time to do so - they really keep me motivated and I _love _hearing my readers thoughts.

Thanks for reading!


	3. Authority

**A/N: **Hello again, fellow wrestling fans!

I'm not too sure how often I'll be updating from now on as when I'm not drawing, I choose either between writing and animating to do. As it's a day until October, I'm going to be focusing on animating a bit more as I will be using creepier songs in celebration of Halloween (I post these on my YouTube, Skia Wolf). I hope that you understand!

I will still be writing though, of course. Especially with this one, as I enjoy writing it so much. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

* * *

><p>Hostage<p>

Chapter Three – Authority

* * *

><p>Dean was already up and dressed again that morning when Seth exited his room. He was, yet again, making breakfast. This time, he was making eggs. Seth didn't even realise he would cook at this time.<p>

"Morning again, sunshine," Dean grinned. "Sleep alright?"

"Yeah, it was okay," said Seth, sitting down. "I'm still shocked that you shot that guy in the shoulder."

"I would have shot him in his chest if I was closer. I hate him with a passion."

"Do you think he'll be alright?"

"Oh, of course. It was just his shoulder – he would have had someone remove the bullet, probably Kane or some smart guy called Sandow since their best person at medical shit joined us half a year ago. A guy like Lesnar won't spend long at all recovering."

"Have you ever been shot?" Seth asked curiously. It really wouldn't surprise him if he learnt that Dean had been on his feet the next day after getting shot in the leg. However, he shook his head.

"Nah, not me. I've always done the shooting. Roman has been shot though – right in his side. Stung like a bitch, apparently. He was out of action for a while, naturally. Want some of these?"

Seth was confused for a moment as he had been distracted by the thought of guns, before realising Dean was talking about the eggs.

"Um, sure," he replied. "Just on their own, though. I'm not that hungry."

"It's no wonder you're so small – you don't eat even half of what I do, sometimes," Dean said, putting some of the eggs on his plate of toast, the others on Seth's plate. "Water again?"

"Yeah, that's fine," said Seth. Dean nodded, put the two plates down on the coffee table, and grabbed a bottle of water and his own mug of coffee.

"It doesn't feel like you're even a hostage, you know," Dean said after a few minutes of them eating. "It feels like you're just a friend or something. You're certainly not acting scared anymore."

"Well... I'm not," said Seth, putting down his plate. "I was, but... I guess I'm just calm now."

"It's my charm, I can tell."

Seth laughed, and looked down at his hands awkwardly.

"I was just wondering if..." he started, looking embarrassed.

"If...?" Dean said, smirking.

"If, well, obviously I don't have any of my clothes and things and..."

"Oh, I get you," Dean laughed. He put down his empty plate, and got up off the sofa. "Give me a second."

Seth nodded, and while Dean was in his room, he decided to put the plates in the sink. For some reason, he felt like he had to be at least a little polite, even though it wasn't his choice that he was even here in the first place.

"Well, aren't you acting kind?" Dean laughed when he walked into the room. He threw a few pieces of clothing at Seth. "Right, I found a really old pair of jeans which should be small enough to fit you, though I've got a belt there just in case, and some underwear – don't worry, I'm not a slob. They're old, but they're clean. I got another t-shirt for you as well."

"Um... Thank you," Seth smiled. Like the previous day, Dean simply shrugged.

"Don't mention it," he said. "If you want to have a shower as well, feel free."

"You don't mind?" Seth asked.

"Nah, why would I? Just don't take too long. I've even got a spare tooth brush if you want to brush your teeth as well."

"That'd be appreciated," Seth nodded.

"Go ahead," Dean said, and began to wash the dishes in the sink. Seth took this moment to head into the bathroom.

He undressed himself and stepped into the shower. He sighed as the water hit him – it felt so lovely to feel the hot water again, even if it _was _in a criminal's bathroom. He only stayed in there for a few minutes, however, as he didn't want to waste Dean's hot water. He laughed out loud when he put on Dean's old jeans and he _still _had to wear a belt, despite them seeming like they were a couple of years old. He put on Dean's t-shirt and hoodie, and began to brush his teeth, which was another lovely feeling. He would never take advantage of something so small ever again.

He walked back into the living area, the previous clothes he had been wearing in his arms.

"Where should I put these?" he asked. Dean thought for a moment, before pointing at the armchair.

"Just put them down there; I'll put them in the wash later."

Seth nodded and placed them on the chair before sitting back down on the sofa. Dean was about to join him, but stopped when his phone started ringing.

"Wow, two morning calls in a row," Dean chuckled once he had answered the call. "I feel very flattered."

Dean's expression quickly grew from amused to serious as he focused on what Roman was saying.

"Wait, they have been? Have they found any of us, yet?"

Seth watched as he paced up and down the room, concerned.

"Wait, you're not serious?" Dean said, stopping. "You can't be serious. I've been careful, Roman, you know I have. "

Seth's body froze when Dean said those words.

"What's going on?" he asked worriedly, but Dean didn't answer.

"We're getting out of here _now_," Dean said, and ended the call. He reached out for his gun, and grabbed Seth's hand.

"What are you doing?" Seth asked as Dean pulled him out of the apartment. "Shouldn't you lock-"

"There's no time for that," Dean said, still not letting go of Seth's hand as he hurriedly walked down the stairs. "AJ got into those plans – it turns out they've been trying to discover where we live. Guess who's first on their discovery list."

"But how-"

"I don't know, I seriously don't. But we're getting out of here before they get here."

Dean quickly brought Seth to the back exit, and nodded towards an alleyway.

"If we go down that way, we should be able to get to the car without being seen by-"

He was interrupted by a gunshot fired close by. Seth cried out in shock, and turned to find three men – one of which he recognised as Kane – further down the street.

"Shit, come _on!" _Dean said, shooting a couple of bullets down at the Authority members before grabbing Seth's hand once more and started running down the alleyway, his rivals running after them not far behind. They fired a couple of more wild gunshots – one of which hit their targets.

Seth screamed out in pain as the bullet was shot into his leg, making him fall to the ground.

"Fuck, _SETH!" _Dean shouted. He aimed his gun at Kane and shot a bullet into his stomach, making the other two men stop and crouch down beside their fallen member to see if he was alright – Kane was, after all, one of the most helpful members of the gang.

"Come on, we've got to get you out of here," Dean said. He took off his t-shirt, rolled up Seth's trousers, and tied it around the wound in Seth's leg before lifting him up in both arms.

"I-It hurts... It really h-hurts..." Seth panted, his eyes drooping. His head fell against Dean's chest as he breathed heavily, tears of pain starting to fall down his cheeks.

"I know, I know..." Dean murmured, and walked as fast as he could to his car. He gently placed Seth in the backseat, and quickly scanned the area before he got into the driver's seat and began to make his way back to the base, his phone dialling Roman's number as he did so. "I need Vickie as soon as we get there! They bloody came after us as we left the building, and Seth got hit in the leg."

He glanced back at Seth worriedly, hoping that the boy had fallen unconscious just so that he didn't have to feel the pain – but he was still awake, with sweat now trickling down his forehead.

"I don't know how deep the bullet is, no," Dean said. "But please, just make sure she's ready for us when we get there, alright? I need someone there to let us in too; I'm not typing out the fucking password while I have Seth in my arms with a bullet in his leg... Okay, thanks Roman."

He ended the call, sighing deeply. Luckily, he had soon arrived at the back of the building. He quickly jumped out and opened one of the back doors to pick up Seth once more.

"Where... W-Where..."

"It's alright, you're going to get help," Dean murmured as he walked as fast as he could without jolting Seth's leg. He was relieved to see that Brie was standing by the door, holding it open.

"Oh God," Brie gasped as she followed Dean and Seth into the building, shutting the door behind her.

"Dean, put him down over here!" Roman called, gesturing to the table. Dean gently placed Seth down, looking at Vickie, who was standing by them, frantically.

"Vickie, please, you've got to get that bullet out," he said.

"I will try – you really should have taken him to the hospital..."she said as she began to untie Dean's t-shirt from around Seth's leg, which was already completely stained with blood.

"Oh, yeah, that would work brilliantly. 'Oh, how he got shot, you ask? Well, I'm in a gang, and our rivals found where I lived and ending up shooting Seth, the hostage who I was _supposed_ to be protecting...'"

Dean stopped, breathing heavily. Roman put a hand on his shoulder, sighing.

"Look, it's not your fault. Vickie is a pro at this – she managed to help me. He'll be fine."

"He will be if I can get to that bullet as soon as possible so I can stop the blood," Vickie said. "Give him that rag to bite on to – this is going to be _very _painful."

Dean nodded and bent down by Seth, grabbing the rag.

"You're going to have to bite into this, alright?" he said. Seth nodded slowly and bit into it, looking at Dean in worry.

"Alright, the sooner I get this done, the better. Luckily, it hasn't hit anything vital," Vickie said. "Roman, when I tell you to, I need you to apply pressure to his leg with that shirt to stop the bleeding, alright? It'll hurt, but it needs to be done."

"Of course," said Roman, grabbing Dean's t-shirt. Vickie pulled out a penknife, and Seth's eyes widened in horror as he shook his head.

"I don't have anything else to get the bullet out with," she sighed. "I've done this before. It _needs _to come out, unless you want to lose your whole leg."

Seth nodded, and pain flared up through his leg as the knife entered the wound. He squeezed his eyes shut and bit down into the rag roughly. Dean winced and brushed back Seth's hair softly in comfort.

"It's alright, it's alright..." Dean murmured as he planted a small kiss on the boy's forehead. Without warning, in one smooth and swift motion, Vickie dug the knife in slightly deeper and pulled it out just as quickly.

"_Now, _Roman!"

The man quickly pressed the shirt against the wound, as Vickie picked up the bullet from the table, smiling.

"There we are," she said, holding it up. "After Roman's pressed that against it for a couple of minutes, we just need to stitch you up and we're done."

"Fucking hell, he's passed out!" Dean said. "Is he alright?"

"He will be – it was probably from the shock of the pain," said Vickie. "It doesn't surprise me; he's most likely never felt that much pain before. At least I can clean him up and stitch the wound while he is unconscious, now."

She set to work straight away, making the most out of the opportunity. She wiped away the blood on his leg, and started to put a sewing needle through the skin. She was finished minutes later, and Dean was surprised at how quickly and neatly she managed to make it.

"There we go, he should be fine soon enough," she smiled. "He will have to be on crutches for a while, but he'll heal."

"Thank you so much, Vickie," Dean said, sighing in relief. "I was worried it might have hit something vital."

"No, he'll be alright," she said. Dean nodded gratefully, and smiled when he saw that Seth was waking up.

"Hey there, princess," he said.

"Did I... Pass out?" Seth asked, rubbing his neck.

"Uh-huh, but you're fine now. Well, you're going to be on crutches for a while but nothing worse than that," he sighed, helping Seth sit up on the table. "We need to take you back home."

"Wait, what?" said Roman, turning to him.

"You heard me. I promised him that I wouldn't get him hurt, and what happens? He gets shot in the fucking leg."

"We can't contact his parents yet, they probably still think he just ran away-"

"Well, then we take him back there ourselves, make up some story about how he got hurt and that we were looking after him, or some shit like that. I don't give a fuck about money anymore. We'll give it a couple of days, let the worst of it heal, and then take him back. He never asked for this – and I'm _not _going to make him stay if he's going to end up getting hurt like that."

They were silent for a few moments, before Roman sighed and nodded.

"If that's what you want, then fine. You can both stay at my house until then," he said. Dean was only ever this serious about something he cared a lot about, and Roman knew that it was pointless trying to argue – but he did know where Dean was coming from. "We don't have any crutches here but I have some at my house. I'm sure you don't mind carrying him there, do you?"

"Nah, course not," said Dean, the smirk returning to his face. "He's lighter than a sixteen-year-girl."

"I'm not that light," Seth mumbled, and Dean laughed.

"No, you're not. Like I said – you're _lighter."_

"I think the poor guy has had more teasing off you than he has had in his whole life," Roman chuckled. "Who were the ones that attacked you, anyway?"

"Rowan, Harper, and Kane – who I shot in the stomach, by the way."

"Wait, you got _Kane?" _Roman asked. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"I was a bit distracted by the bullet in Seth's leg, in all honesty."

"Right, of course. But Dean, you've shot _two _of their big guys now, you do realise. They're seriously not going to be pleased with you after that."

"Oh yeah, because in both situations, I would have done nothing. Just let Brie get shot, and then either get myself shot or get Seth shot _again._"

"I know, I know. It's just a bit of a worry, that's all."

"Look, you said yourself that we are ahead of the Authority, so it's fine," Dean shrugged. "Sure, they found out where I live, but we know where their base is."

"They're going to try and move themselves once they see that we stole their plans," Roman replied, sighing. "Which they've probably already noticed."

"Come on, they can't just pack up all their things in an hour and find a new place! Lighten up already. What time is it, anyway?"

"Just gone past eleven," said Roman. "It's still too early for me to leave here, but I'd rather get Seth to my place while the Authority is still dealing with Kane. AJ, would you mind staying here for the day? We weren't going to do that much anyway."

"No, of course not," AJ smiled.

"Alright, thank you. Come on, let's get going. Don't forget your boyfriend, Dean."

"B-_Boyfriend?"_

"He's kidding, princess," Dean laughed, picking him up. "Lead the way then, Rome."

The three of them were soon in the car – with Dean in the passenger seat, Seth in the back, and with Roman naturally driving.

"It's a bit of a longer drive to my house than Dean's apartment," said Roman. "It's about thirty minutes away from here. It's no wonder the Authority haven't discovered where I live yet."

"Unlike me," Dean sighed, brushing his hair off his forehead. "I guess I'm going to have to get my things from there soon, though I'll have to be careful."

"We'll send someone else instead of you," said Roman. "If we send someone they're not entirely used to, and they're hanging around the area, they probably won't give them a second glance. But if it was you, then it's not going to end well."

"I'm glad you care about me so much. I feel loved."

"I'm being serious, Dean. You can't go back there now. It's far too dangerous."

"I know, Rome, relax. I don't care about that place anyway. I'll find somewhere else."

The rest of the car journey was silent, but only because the three of them were distracted by their own thoughts. Roman was concerned over the Authority's slow, but sure progression of finding where each of the members lived and harming them after what had happened to Seth. Dean was concerned himself over the situation – though of course, he didn't show it. He found it worrying that despite his carefulness and caution, the Authority still had managed to find where he lived. It would be best for him to find somewhere to live that wasn't so close to both their base and the Authority's – he had questioned if it was a good idea from the start, and now he could see that it clearly wasn't.

As for Seth, he wasn't very worried. If they were this far away from the area, then they would almost certainly be safe.

Soon enough, they had arrived at Roman's house. It wasn't as big as the houses were on the street Seth lived on, but was still a fairly decent size. It made Seth wonder why Roman was able to live in a very pleasant looking house like this one, and yet Dean had only been able to rent a smaller apartment. He didn't ask, however, considering it would have seemed rude.

Dean opened the car door and picked up Seth in his arms before Roman locked it. They walked up to the house behind Roman, who unlocked the door and laughed once he had entered.

"Down, Heidi, down!"

Seth was expecting to see some sort of large dog breed, and was fairly surprised to see a small white terrier by Roman's feet. Dean noticed this and chuckled at Seth's expression.

"Roman adores small dogs."

"I'm not even going to try and deny it," Roman laughed as he picked up the small dog. "Come on, I've only been gone a few hours. There's no need to be this excited."

"Rome, haven't you forgotten something?" said Dean. Roman looked over at him, and then at Seth.

"Oh yeah, shit. I'll go and get them now," he replied, before he walked up the stairs.

"We'll just wait for him in the living room," said Dean, heading over to a room which was nicely decorated. He placed Seth down on the sofa, and sat down next to him.

"Sorry about all the carrying," said Seth.

"Come on, there's no need to say sorry. I've lifted weights that are heavier than you. Besides, it's my fault you got shot in the first place. It's the least I can do."

"It's not your fault," he replied softly, looking down at his hands. "I mean, it's not like you didn't try to get us out of there without them seeing us. It's not like you made them shoot me or anything, so don't blame yourself."

"I just didn't want you getting hurt, and then you get shot in the leg," Dean sighed. "How _is _your leg now, anyway?"

"It hurts, a lot," Seth admitted. "But not as much as it did before. Vickie was amazing."

"Yeah, she's the best," he grinned. "It's a good job she left the Authority to join us."

"It is," said Seth. He looked over at a photograph on the coffee table in front of them of a very pretty woman with curly brown hair. "Who is she?"

"Oh, that's..." Dean's words drifted off, as though it was something which he didn't feel right to talk about.

"That's Galina."

Both Seth and Dean looked up at Roman, who was standing in the doorway with a pair of crutches in his hand.

"She was my partner," he continued. "Was one of the best people who ever came into my life."

"What happened to her?" Seth asked in a quiet voice. Roman sighed and walked over to sit in an armchair by the sofa.

"They shot her," he said, closing his eyes. "It was a couple of years ago, when they had ambushed us in our old base. There weren't a huge amount of serious injuries – but one bullet was shot right through her chest. That was the last day we were even going to stay with the gang. We had just found out she was pregnant and as we had a house, this house, and as it's pretty far away from everyone back there we thought we would be able to just leave it all behind, and start life as a family. Everyone was supportive, but... Then it happened. Now I'm not going to stop until we've taken the Authority down. Every single crime we do to get money is just so we can get enough weapons, and have enough to stop them."

"I'm so sorry about your loss," Seth whispered, and now was able to see the reason why Roman was so determined to stop them.

"It's alright," Roman smiled. "As long as we can put a stop to them, I will be happy."

* * *

><p>Erick Rowan and Luke Harper burst into their base, holding onto an unconscious Kane bleeding heavily from his stomach, through the shirt tied around the wound. Stephanie McMahon ran over with her husband Hunter, a shocked and worried expression on her face.<p>

"How did this happen?" she cried. "SANDOW, come over here!"

"It was Ambrose," said Rowan as he and Harper laid down Kane on a table. "He shot Kane as he was escaping. We didn't follow him because we were more focused on getting Kane back here."

"I don't care about you not following him, I just care about keeping Kane alive," she said, looking at Sandow. "Damien, you have to get that bullet out, alright? I can't lose him, not with how far we're getting."

"I know, I will try," he said, inspecting the wound. "I should be able to do this, though I need complete silence so I will be able to concentrate properly."

"Just do it!" Stephanie said agitated, putting her head in her hand. "First it was Brock, now Kane. I'm going to fucking kill that Ambrose."

"There is some good news, however," said Harper.

"It better be something that's actually good," said Hunter. "All we've got now is them believing that building is our actual base and those plans were important. Oh, and we know where Ambrose lives, or used to live now, anyway. We can't do anything with this if our best guys are going to all end up injured."

"No, you're going to be happy with this," Rowan said.

"Fine, let's hear it," Stephanie sighed, crossing her arms.

"You're not going to hear it around me! I need to concentrate on this!" Sandow said.

"Fine, we'll go over there if it helps, just don't let him die on us," she replied, walking over to the other side of the room with the others. "Right, what is it?"

"There was this boy with Ambrose," said Rowan. "He looked about sixteen, or something like that."

"And?" Hunter sighed.

"Ambrose seemed fairly protective of him," Harper explained. "Whether this guy is a hostage, a new member, or he's picked himself up a new person to sleep with, he seems important."

"If you're sure about this guy being of some importance, then this might be the best way of getting Dean to spill where their base is, or even this guy himself," said Stephanie, smiling slightly. "Did you manage to pick up a name?"

"He's called Seth," said Rowan. "Kane shot him in the leg, and Ambrose shouted that name."

"Seth... Why does that name seem so familiar?" Hunter asked. He pulled out his phone, and the others looked at him silently for a minute before a wide grin grew on his face. "Ah, I remember."

"What is it?" Stephanie asked, looking at his phone.

"He must be this guy that's been missing about an hour away from here," he said, showing her the news report. "Looks like they've managed to get themselves a hostage on one of their travels. Is this what the boy looked like?"

Rowan and Harper inspected the picture on the screen, and both nodded.

"Yeah, that seems like him – he even had that blonde side of hair," said Rowan.

"Oh, this is perfect," Stephanie said. The others followed her as she walked over to Bray Wyatt, sat with a computer. "Whatever you're doing, stop. I need you to look up Seth Rollins."

"That missing teenager? Why?" asked Wyatt.

"Because it looks like this missing teenager is in the hands of Justice," Stephanie smiled. "Have a look; see how much he could be worth."

Bray nodded and a few minutes later, was smirking.

"He comes from a pretty rich place, it seems. His mother is a doctor and his father runs his own business. Seems like they'd pay a high price."

"Damn, it's no wonder Ambrose was so protective," Hunter grinned.

"But we might not even be able to get our hands on this guy," said Harper. "He is, after all, with Ambrose, and they're obviously not going to go back to that apartment. He's probably going to be even more protective of him now that he's ended up getting shot."

"That's true, but we already know how much they try to keep their hostages away from us," said Stephanie. "They're probably going to end up driving back with Rollins – either to get the money from his parents far away from us, or even to simply return him home. It's what they are like."

"But even if they do that, how do we know when they'd leave and which way they'd get there?" Rowan asked, frowning.

"We don't know when exactly they'd leave, but it will probably be over the next couple of days, I can imagine. They wouldn't just wait, there isn't any point. As for the journey, they can take as many shortcuts and roads out of the way as they want, but they're eventually going to have only one road to stick to if they're going to take Rollins back to his town."

"So if we have a few people waiting there over the next few days, then we should be able to stop them," Hunter added, smiling.

"This is our chance!" Stephanie said. "As soon as Damien is done with Kane, get everyone around. We have a plan to discuss."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **You didn't think it was all going to be sweet protective Dean and that's it, did you? Nah, of course I wouldn't just write that. *evil chuckle*

Thanks to those who have reviewed and such so far! It makes me feel like that I am at least remotely okay at writing. Feel free to continue to review your thoughts, it honestly brings me joy. I mean that seriously.

Anyway, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	4. Protective

**A/N: **I am so sorry for this late update! I've just been so distracted with stress from being over a month behind in college and not even being able to handle being in the classrooms and from my bad health that I just haven't been writing. I'm even worse with my other story... I have only written 700+ words and it's been two weeks.

Anyway, here's the chapter... Finally. Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

><p>Hostage<p>

Chapter Four – Protective

* * *

><p>Seth spent a lot of that night awake. Even though the pain in his leg had naturally reduced after Vickie's help, it was incredibly hard for him to get comfortable despite him lying in a very comfortable bed in Roman's house. It wasn't the best of times for him to not be able to fall asleep as the day had left him exhausted. All he wanted to do was sleep, and yet every time he moved, a sharp pain would shoot through his leg. That sort of pain is very hard to ignore.<p>

He groaned when he realised that he need to go to the bathroom. He sat up, grabbed the crutches Roman had given to him from beside the bed, and carefully hoisted himself off of it. He winced from the pain, but just about managed to get himself to the bathroom down the hall. He was just glad that Roman had a downstairs bathroom as well as a spare room.

Seth's tiredness and pain was affecting him so badly when he left the bathroom that he had to take a moment to lean against the wall, breathing heavily.

"Hey, you alright?"

Seth looked up at the sound of Dean's voice, and saw him standing a little further down the hall with a glass of water in his hand.

"Yeah, it's just my leg..." he said, gesturing towards it. Dean frowned in concern, placed his glass down on a cabinet, and walked over to Seth.

"Fucking hell, you look exhausted," said Dean, holding Seth's chin up softly to look into his eyes. "Come on."

"What are you- Hey, you don't need to carry me! I have crutches for a reason, you know."

"You can hardly keep yourself stood up," Dean chuckled, holding the two crutches in the hand under Seth's legs. "Honestly, you'd just end up falling over."

Seth stayed silent while Dean carried him back to his room, and mumbled a thank you when he was placed on the bed and the crutches were placed down beside it.

"Nah, don't mention it," said Dean. He paused for a moment, before picking up a cushion from a chair and handed it to Seth. "Put that under your leg. It will help you sleep better."

"Thank you," Seth smiled tiredly as he bent over to place it on the mattress under his leg, wincing while he did so. He sat up surprised when he felt a pair of muscular arms pull him into a hug.

"I'm so fucking sorry," Dean said quietly. "I didn't want anything like this to happen to you. I had never, _ever _planned for you to get hurt like this."

"It's alright," Seth replied softly. "I've already told you I don't blame you at all. You don't need to apologise to me."

Dean sighed and moved so that his hands were holding Seth's face.

"I swear, I'm going to do everything I can do stop them from hurting you. If they ever even dare to touch you, or even go anywhere near you, they're fucking dead. I'm not allowing anything like this to happen to you again. That's a promise."

He gently kissed Seth on his forehead and left the room before the younger boy even had a chance to think of how to respond.

* * *

><p>Seth woke up that morning not sure on exactly when or even how he fell asleep the previous night. Perhaps it was the tiredness getting far too much for him, as well as the pillow that Dean had advised him to put under his leg, and... Well, the man sure was comforting. It was strange to think that a man who had seemed so threatening back in that alleyway and a man who had shot two people over the last couple of days was able to seem so caring and so concerned for Seth's safety and his well-being. Not to mention the two forehead kisses he had received so far from Dean... Which strangely brought him a feeling that he hadn't felt since he thought that Sami cared for him?<p>

He shook his head as he reached for the crutches by the bed. There was no way at all he should start thinking like that. He was going to be home in only a couple of days – he wasn't even going to see Dean again after that, most likely.

With the two crutches now tucked under his arms, he heaved himself off the bed and made his way through the house. Once he heard the voices of Dean and Roman come from the kitchen, he headed over in that direction. Dean was sitting on one of the chairs by the dining table, while Roman was standing in the kitchen area itself. Both of them turned at the sound of crutches against the wooden floor, and smiled.

"Morning there, sunshine," Dean said. "You seem a lot more awake than you were last night."

"Yeah, I slept fairly well," Seth replied, taking a seat next to Dean.

"Rome's making pancakes," he said, nodding at Roman. "They're not even healthy ones. I'm surprised."

"Come on, even I eat unhealthily sometimes," Roman chuckled, putting the first pancake on a plate. "You want this one, Seth?"

"Aw, that one was going to be mine!"

"Guests first, Dean."

"I'm a guest too."

"You're too annoying to be considered as a guest."

"If Dean wants it, I really don't mind," Seth laughed.

"Nah, I don't care. Not this time, anyway. The next one is mine though," said Dean. Roman chuckled and handed the plate over to Seth with a knife and fork. "Got any bottles of water, Rome?"

"Yes, obviously, but you have coffee right there."

"It's for Seth, not me. He seems to like his water," said Dean, nodding at Seth. "It's the only thing he's drank since he's been with us."

"Oh, right," said Roman, grabbing a bottle out of the fridge. "Here you are."

"Thank you," Seth smiled as he took the bottle from Roman.

"No problem," said Roman. He turned to Dean, grinning. "I can see why you're so fond of him, Dean."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

"He's sweet. Always saying thank you and being polite. You wouldn't think he is a hostage."

"Yeah, he's a cute one, all right," Dean grinned, ruffling Seth's hair. "Hey, where's my pancake already? A man's got to eat, you know. I'm dying over here."

"You're not going to starve, stop being so dramatic. It's almost done," Roman chuckled. He nodded at a television placed in the room. "Turn that on for me, will you?"

"I don't get why you like the news so much, it's all a downer for me personally," Dean shrugged, but turned it on nonetheless. "I hope my pancake is done now."

"Yes, it is now," Roman said. "Come and get it yourself. You don't have a shot leg."

"I'm getting up now," Dean laughed, walking over to the kitchen. "Hey, wasn't that your name just mentioned there, Seth?"

"Oh, I wasn't listening..." Seth said, looking over at the screen. He was rather surprised that he had actually made the news.

'..._Officials were at first certain that the teenage boy had simply run away from home, as his mother had suggested. _

"_He has seemed fairly down for a while, we've noticed. We think that he may have thought that leaving home would make him happier..."_

_But after no word from her son and no sign of him anywhere nearby, the possibility that he may have been abducted is being considered._

"_We hope that no harm has come to our son. Please Seth, if you're watching this, come home, or at least let me know that you are safe. I love you."_

_More news on the search of Seth Rollins will be reported as time passes._

Seth had stopped eating while he was listening to the report, and now that it had finished, he had lost his appetite. He had only been thinking about how the situation he was in could have been a lot worse, if he had been taken by the Authority, or probably even by any other gang that could have been closer to home. Admittedly, he didn't even mind being there anymore, despite what had happened to him the previous day. But he hadn't stopped to think about how worried his family must have been, how much Bayley and Corey were missing him and hoping that he was alright. He suddenly felt disgusted at how selfish he had been; only thinking about what was happening to him and never those who loved him back home.

Dean, who had sat down with his food during the report, noticed Seth's change of mood and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright, you will be back with them soon enough."

Seth nodded, though he somehow felt even more awful by Dean's comforting. It wasn't the fact that Seth was away from his parents that was troubling him – it was the guilt that over the time he had been away from them he had never actually wished he was back home, he had only hoped he would be out of harm's way.

It probably didn't help that he found himself starting to genuinely enjoy being in Dean's presence.

"Do you want any more pancakes after that one, Dean?" Roman asked, sitting across from them. "We have to get going soon."

"Obviously, it _is _me after all. But I'm not going," said Dean, finishing the last bite of his food. Both Roman and Seth looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean, you're not going?" Roman questioned.

"Because I don't want Seth leaving here. This is the safest place for him to be," Dean explained. "I don't want to leave him on his own, either. It might be safe but I am not taking any chances, especially with his injury."

"Well... Yeah, you're right," Roman nodded. "I need you back there after a couple of days, though."

"It's just until I take Seth back, don't worry," said Dean. "You can call me if you need me."

"Alright, that's fine," said Roman. He quickly finished off the rest of his food and stood up. "I have to get going. If you want more food, make it yourself."

"I'm not that lazy. See you later," said Dean.

"Don't mess the place up too much," Roman grinned, and nodded at Seth before he grabbed his keys and left.

"So it's just you and me for the day, eh?" Dean said, getting out of his chair to make himself another pancake. He stopped when there was no reply from Seth, and turned around. "Hey, what's up?"

"It's nothing," Seth said, looking down at his empty plate. Dean frowned and completely forgot about his food. He sat back down next to Seth, and placed a hand on his knee.

"It's clearly something," he said, as he turned off the television to quieten the noise. "You've been off since the news report was on TV. Do you miss your family?"

"I don't, that's the thing," Seth sighed, and Dean had to hide his surprise. "I've spent all this time away from them thinking about myself. When you and the others first confronted me in the alley, I was terrified, but it was about what could happen to me and not how my family would react. When I saw that I was safe with you, I was relieved for myself but not over the fact that my family and friends would see me again. I've been worried about getting hurt, and again, that's just because I don't want to feel any more pain. It just seems so selfish of me and I know it sounds so awful, but it's true."

"It doesn't sound awful," said Dean. "It's what anyone would be like if they were in your position. It can be hard to think about others when you fear for your own life."

"I just feel guilty about it," said Seth quietly. "I just... What am I going back to? They're going to be overjoyed when they see me, including my friends Bayley and Corey, but what then, when they're used to be being back home? It's just going to be the same thing again. I wasn't happy, Dean, I really wasn't. It makes me sound like some stupid rich kid when I say that, I know, but I never was. I haven't been happy in a long time and I just... I don't even know what I'm going to do when I go back."

Dean stayed silent for a few moments, unsure of what to say. He had expected Seth to be the sort of person to have lots of friends, do a lot of things and just be _happy. _It was probably due to how much of a kind and caring person Seth seemed to be – who wouldn't want to be friends with someone like that? Though if Seth wasn't even looking back to going home, and he said that he hasn't been happy for a long time... It seemed as though Dean had imagined Seth's life completely different to how it actually was.

"Maybe things will be better for you when you get back," he replied, eventually.

"I sure hope so," Seth sighed. "I feel so guilty because I have what others would wish for their whole lives. It just makes me selfish."

"No, it doesn't," said Dean, shaking his head. "Other people may also have what _you _wish for. What makes one person happy might not mean much to someone else. I've never really cared about not having family and much money myself, because what I've always wanted more in life is friendships that will last me an eternity, and perhaps even romance one day. _That's _why I'm happy; I am surrounded by people I've built relationships with and people who will always stay by my side. I don't need a load of money or an expensive house when I have that in my life."

"That's the thing I cherish the most, too," Seth smiled, finally looking back at Dean. "There is something I want to ask, but I don't want to seem rude or anything..."

"Nah, it's fine. Go ahead," said Dean, moving the hand that had been placed on Seth's knee and rested it on the table.

"When you say you didn't have family... Do you mean you were adopted?" Seth asked, cursing silently at how rude and blunt that probably sounded. Dean, however, didn't seem to care about the question.

"No, I just don't see them as my family," Dean explained. "They were never there for me. I was left to my own devices most of the time. My mom was out doing God knows what, never knew my dad. I never built any proper relationship with the family I was supposed to have."

"I'm so sorry," Seth said sadly. "I shouldn't have asked."

"No, it's alright," Dean smiled reassuringly. "I honestly don't care about it anymore. I spent a lot of my childhood with Roman, and as time went on I eventually met the others. One I turned fourteen I moved in with Roman and his partner, and that was honestly one of the best decisions I've made. Sure, my life isn't fancy and I'm hated by the Authority, but I wouldn't change it. I have a family in Justice, and that's the main thing. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be the person I am today and I probably wouldn't be happy without them."

The words from Dean truly touched Seth's heart. At this moment, he could not care less that Dean and Justice committed crimes. The fact that they were all so close and their love was so strong showed that sometimes, your family by blood aren't your _true _family. Your true family are the ones who stay by your side and never give up on you.

That's exactly what Justice were like.

"That's... That's beautiful," said Seth softly. "I'm glad you have them. They're your true family."

"I agree," Dean nodded. "They've done much more for me than my apparent 'real' family ever did for me."

"It seems like this is something which the Authority doesn't have."

"No, definitely not. Never acted like that with us, never even to each other."

"Wait, to you?" Seth asked, puzzled. "Did you get along at one point?"

Dean sighed deeply, brushing his hair back of his forehead.

"Yeah, we were all childhood friends at one point. We used to play these games together, basically pretending to do what we do for real now. When we became teenagers, we all started getting into trouble. It probably didn't help that we were growing up in such a rough area. There were some sort of disagreements between us, and that's when we split. Some on our side, others on theirs. People some of us considered our best friends left us. Even Brie's twin sister, Nikki, went on their side. Eventually the crimes we played out when we were kids became reality, for both of us, but they were much worse and we knew it was wrong, how they treated people. That's why we called ourselves 'Justice'. It's kind of weird, that we're supposed to be criminals and yet our focus is stopping other criminals."

"I was wondering why you guys were so focused on stopping them," said Seth. "I'm sorry that some of you lost people you were close to... Especially with how Brie even lost her own sister. Why would Nikki leave her like that?"

"She used excuses like 'Brie was always the preferred twin' and that she 'was never treated the same way'. Basically a load of bullshit, if you ask me. She was John's girlfriend as well – I'm guessing that Stephanie and Hunter just gave her some sort of offer or deal. Proves how loyal she is."

"Wow, that's awful," said Seth. "I don't know how someone can do that to people they're supposed to love."

Dean shrugged, and finally walked back to the kitchen, where he began to make his second pancake.

"It just happens, I guess. At least I still have Roman. I don't think I'm ever going to lose that guy."

Seth could see just how close the two of them were over the next couple of days when Roman was at home. It was simply the way that they spoke and acted around each other. Despite Dean's joking attitude to what Roman said, you could still tell that he was genuinely interested and cared about what he was saying. They were obviously very comfortable together, and seemed to speak just about anything that came to their minds.

They didn't, however, leave Seth out of what they were talking about. All of the time that Roman was home, the three of them spent most of the time in the lounge, not bothering to watch any television as conversation was entertaining enough for them. Seth was actually quite surprised when one of their conversations soon led to them discussing their love lives with Seth – mainly Dean.

"I was with a girl called Paige for a while before she went with the Authority," he had said. "Then after she was gone AJ and I gave it a go, but she soon developed feeling for Punk. I didn't really care that much though. I've never really been one to seriously commit to someone."

It turned out that Roman hadn't been with someone since the death of his fiancé – which was completely understandable.

"I've never had such strong feelings for someone else," he had explained. "Maybe one day when this is all over with the Authority I can meet another girl, but for now, I'm not interested in anyone."

Seth also wasn't surprised when it turned out that Dean wasn't actually heterosexual – the car journey on the way over to the area that night made him guess that Dean wasn't straight. He was, seemingly, pansexual instead.

"A load of people seem to think I will only ever be with girls but that's not true. When it comes to looks, if they're hot, then I'm attracted to them. It doesn't matter if it's a guy. But I care more about the person. If they have the right personality, I couldn't care less about what's in between their legs.

What surprised Seth was how much he was starting to enjoy being in their company more and more. They seemed to enjoy Seth's company too – it didn't seem like they were just putting up with him until he went home. They also seemed just as comfortable with him as he was with them. Well, if they weren't, they wouldn't talk about themselves like that.

It somehow felt even more comfortable than how he did with Corey and Bayley... And he was starting to think he was going to miss them.

* * *

><p>"Dean, are you sure you don't want me to go with you? I seriously don't mind. I can lose out on a couple of hours of sleep if you need me to."<p>

It was a couple of days later, and also very early in the morning. Dean was now planning to bring Seth home, who wasn't saying a word. He was feeling strangely disappointed in having to go home, after actually enjoying his time at Roman's house.

"No, it's fine, you said yourself before that you're not feeling good," said Dean, unlocking his car, which had been dropped off by AJ that morning. "Get yourself in bed soon. We'll be fine."

"I probably won't even be able to sleep until you're at least halfway there," Roman chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll call you in about an hour, alright?"

"Okay, just make sure you go to bed after that. You need the sleep."

"You, Dean Ambrose, are trying to get _me _to sleep more?" Roman laughed.

"I'm not the one with the fever," Dean shrugged, as he opened the door to the passenger. "Are you alright getting in the car, Seth, or do you need a hand?"

"Oh, no, I'm alright," Seth replied. Dean nodded and headed to the other side of the car to get into the driver's seat while Seth steadily got into the passenger's seat. He reached behind him to put the crutches on the back seats.

"Don't look so concerned, Rome," Dean chuckled. "We'll be alright. I'll try not to wake you up when I get back."

"You better not," Roman grinned. "Have a safe journey."

"We will, _mom," _Dean laughed, before he turned on the engine and drove away.

The first half an hour of the car journey merely consisted of them chatting about random topics, but after being silent for a few minutes Dean spoke up again in a more serious voice.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?" Seth replied, smiling.

"Earlier today, you seemed to be quiet when Roman and I were discussing our love lives... I was just wondering, did anything happen?" Dean asked, and immediately groaned and ran a hand through his messy hair. "Fuck, I'm sorry, that sounded so much nicer in my head."

"No, it's fine, there's no need to apologise," said Seth. "Well... I haven't been with many people. Like, at all. It was literally just one person."

"What was her name?"

"Oh no, they weren't a girl," Seth laughed awkwardly. "His name was Sami."

"I should have guessed that you're gay. You just... I don't know. Unless you're bi, that is."

"No, I'm gay."

"So I'm guessing that it didn't work out with this Sami guy, huh?"

"Definitely not," Seth said, laughing humourlessly. Dean could easily tell the difference between his normal laugh and one which is fake, and turned to him with a look of concern on his face.

"What happened?"

"Well... We were together for a couple of months," Seth started. "It wasn't long but I really thought that we would be together for a lot longer than we were. We just seemed to get along so well and he was so nice at first. He didn't seem to want to be seen with me, as a couple anyway, in public but I presumed it was because he didn't want any homophobic remarks. But then I just got a text randomly saying that he was breaking up with me. I could hardly believe it. I would have expected him to tell me in person, or at least on the phone, but it was just a small text. I couldn't tell if he cared or not from just a sentence. But I did try to be understanding, and I didn't hold it against him and tried to just forget about him."

"That's the best thing you can do, really. It doesn't help at all dwelling on these things."

"Yeah, but... It's much harder when that very person then becomes friends with the very people who bully you and seem to find it amusing that you're gay."

"Fucking hell," Dean sighed, shaking his head. "I want to punch that guy right in his face. He doesn't say anything homophobic like the rest, does he?"

Seth slowly nodded, and Dean looked furious from this.

"I can't believe that. I don't understand how someone can do that to another person. I can't stand homophobes anyway, but if he was actually your boyfriend and is saying that to you then it just isn't right. Take no notice of them though. I don't know how serious this bullying is and how many are in this little group of pathetic bastards but I do know that what they say is probably bullshit and you don't deserve anything like that. You're honestly one of the nicest guys I've met and I see no reason for people to treat you badly."

"Thank you," Seth smiled.

"Nah, don't mention it," Dean shrugged. "Right, we're going to be at this bridge in a minute. From there it'll probably take about an hour to get to your house."

"Right, okay..."

"What's up? You seem very... Disappointed about that thought."

"It's just that..." Seth sighed, pausing. "Well... Do I even want to go back?"

"Huh?" Dean said, turning to Seth with a questioning look on his face. "What do you mean?"

"I haven't felt this comfortable around someone in ages and I've actually been feeling happy these last few days..." Seth said quietly. "But that's just going to go away again if I go back. I'm just going back to a family who care more about me making them look good than how I feel, friends who seem to like each other more than me and people who hate me for no apparent reason. I just don't see the happiness there."

It was silent for a few moments, while Dean was taking in what Seth had just said.

"You could always... No, never mind."

"What is it?"

"You could always stay with me- I mean, with us. If you wanted to, that is."

Seth was stunned by Dean's words. Stay with them? They would actually let him stay? The thought was crazy, he knew it was, but the thought made him feel a lot happier than going home...

He didn't have a chance to respond, however, when a gun was shot and the car smashed into a lamppost in the street, making his head smack against the window – luckily, a lot less forceful than it could have been.

"Argh..." Seth groaned, holding onto his head. He turned to Dean, and immediately panicked when he saw that he was unconscious, his head resting on the steering wheel. Seth quickly reached over to inspect Dean's head, which he had already noticed was bleeding. Luckily, however, it wasn't from a bullet. That must have hit one of the wheels...

He froze when he heard the car door being opened, and when he turned was he face-to-face with a gun being held by a grinning man.

"Get out."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Wow. First I make you wait almost two weeks, and then I leave you here. I am so nice.

I apologise again for the wait. I will try to get the next chapter uploaded sooner, and it might be a bit longer than usual. Thank you for reading, and feel free to leave a review!


	5. Taken

**A/N: **Wow, it didn't take me two weeks to upload this time. Yay.

I just want to quickly say that when Paige says 'bloody' it's a thing that we generally say over here, okay? I have no idea if it's used in America like it is here so I just wanted to make sure xD I haven't even used the word 'bloody' in that way through the whole fanfic just to make sure that it's not inaccurate.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter!

* * *

><p>Hostage<p>

Chapter Five - Taken

* * *

><p>Seth couldn't move at all for a few moments. All he could do was stare at the gun being directed right at his face in horror. He was completely paralysed in fear.<p>

"Did I stutter?" the man hissed, which quickly made Seth come to senses. Without taking his eyes off the gun, he slowly took off his seatbelt and moved out of the car, trying to not put any weight down on his left foot. Almost immediately after he was stood on the sidewalk, the car door was slammed shut and he cried out in pain as he was pushed roughly against the side of the car.

"Steph is going to be pleased with this," another one of the men said, tightly tying ropes around Seth's wrists. After they were bound together he was spun around, making pain shoot up his injured leg. "Should we gag him?"

"Yeah, just in case he tries screaming."

A rag was quickly shoved into Seth's mouth and was tied at the back of his head before he could barely move.

"Alright, let's get him to the car-"

"Wait!" said a third man, walking closer to them. "Shouldn't we blindfold him, just in case? We don't want him memorising the way there."

"Good idea, Axel," the man with the gun nodded. "Go ahead."

Axel quickly took out his own rag and tied it over Seth's eyes, completely covering his vision. All he could do now was listen to their footsteps, be dragged by his arm to their car, and feel the pain shoot up his leg as he tried to place his left foot as softly as he could on the floor.

He heard a car door opened and he was carelessly thrown inside, making him bite down onto his gag from the immense pain in his leg. He heard two other doors being opened and then three being closed, before the engine was turned on and he felt them begin to move.

"This is definitely the right guy, isn't it? We don't want to end up giving them some random teenager," one of them asked.

"How many guys do you know with part of their hair bleached, have a shot leg and would casually be in the same car as Dean Ambrose? Of course it's the right guy."

"We should have killed that Ambrose while we were there," the other muttered. "We had the perfect chance."

"That would have been a stupid idea. If we did that, we'd have no one to go running back to Reigns. Ambrose seems to be the one who cares about this kid the most anyway so we'll be more successful with this if we let him live."

"He's just been such a hassle. Too skilled with a gun, he is. I was surprised he managed to get Kane."

"At least we got this kid out of it. This is going to help us a lot."

"I hope we haven't made a mistake with not bringing Ambrose with us, Orton. I can see where you're coming from but he could have been helpful."

"I know what I'm doing. We _need _Ambrose to go crying off to his brother hound."

So the man with the gun was Orton? Seth might have been blindfolded now but he remembered Orton's appearance clearly and this made him panic even further. The man Dean had described as 'twisted' happened to be muscular and, naturally, a lot taller than Seth.

The car soon stopped moving and Seth was dragged out roughly by his arm, before they began walking – Seth presumed that they were making their way to their base.

"The kid's shaking. I can feel it," the man holding onto Seth's arm laughed. It was no wonder he was shaking – the fear he had felt when he was in Roman's car on the way to this area was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. All of the things Dean had told him about the Authority were going through his mind and he couldn't even imagine what could possibly happen once he was inside that building.

* * *

><p>Dean groaned as he clutched his head, looking at the blood which dripped onto his hand. He blinked a few times to try to calm his dizziness down, though his eyes soon opened wide in horror when he glanced over at the passenger seat and Seth wasn't there. He opened the door of the car and ignored every ounce of pain in his head as he shouted the younger boy's name.<p>

"Seth? Seth, where are you? _SETH!"_

He looked around the dark street in panic, but there was no sign of a single person or even a vehicle in sight. Panic went through him as he realised what had just happened – a bullet was shot into one of his tires which had made him crash into the lamppost, making his head smash against his window and it must have made him lose conscious just long enough for whoever had come along, he presumed Orton was a part of them with those sort of shooting skills, to take Seth and drive away.

He quickly reached into his pocket when he heard it start ringing and felt a tiny bit of relief when he saw it was Roman.

"Dean, why didn't you pick up the first time? I started presuming the worse-"

"Roman, they took Seth," Dean said hurriedly.

"They _what?"_

"The fucking Authority managed to work out that Seth is somewhat important and that I was going to take him back tonight! One of them hit a tire and I was knocked out – it doesn't seem like I was for long. But there's no one around here and they're probably already at their base by now."

"Shit, I'll get Daniel and Brie to pick you up and take you to headquarters. I'll make my way there myself. Whereabouts are you?"

"Near the bridge, but I don't care about going back there; I care more about hunting them down before Seth gets hurt!"

"Dean, you already know that we were wrong about where their proper base is. We have no idea where it is, we aren't even sure if it's away from the area or not. You can't just go charging through the streets hoping to find them; it's no use. Daniel and Brie can take you back here and then we'll think of a plan."

"They better fucking hurry because I am _not _waiting around while Seth could be getting tortured or whatever they will do to him any minute."

"I know, I know. I'll call them right now – try not to worry over this too much."

"Oh yes, of course I'm not going to worry," Dean said sarcastically before he ended the call. He placed his phone back into his pocket, and began to pace back and forth, his mind uncontrollably imagining the worse possible scenario that Seth could be in. His eyes looked down at the ruined tire which had been shot by the bullet, and he walked around to inspect the front of the car which had smashed into the lamppost. It hadn't been too damaged, still workable, but he didn't feel any sort of relief and couldn't care any less about whether his car was okay or not.

Luckily, Brie and Daniel had managed to arrive just a few minutes later. Daniel hopped out of the passenger seat with a wheel in his hand, nodding at Dean's car.

"I'll get that sorted for you and drive it back. Brie will drive you there."

Dean merely nodded and ran over to the passenger seat of Brie's car, slamming the door. Having not bothered to turn off the engine before, Brie immediately turned the car around and drove as fast as she was able to down the road and managed to get both of them back to the base less than ten minutes later.

Not everyone was there, Dean wasn't expecting there to be considering quite a few needed their sleep, but Punk, Dolph, AJ, John, and naturally Roman were sitting in the base. Despite being worried, it was good for him to see that some of the most helpful – and also his closest friends – were willing to help at this time in the morning.

"Fuck, I've just noticed your head!" Brie exclaimed when they walked into the building.

"It's nothing – most of the blood has dried. I'm more bothered about Seth."

"I've been trying to look through these plans that we took from them," said AJ, typing away at her laptop. "But the thing is, all that there seems to be on this is the locations they have been guessing as the places we live. There's nothing here that's important – apart from the fact that they worked out where you live, obviously. It seems like these were some sort of distraction."

"I thought it didn't make sense for them to leave plans in a base which isn't even their proper one," John commented. "So they purposely put these plans there to throw us off track?"

"That seems like the most obvious explanation," AJ replied. "I can imagine that it was to get us to believe that they weren't located somewhere else, and maybe they even knew that Dean would immediately leave if we found out he lives there, so that's why they were waiting outside."

"That's when they would have found out about Seth," Dean sighed, covering his face with his hand. "We were fucking being tricked and now they've even managed to work out he's important."

"We'll find them Dean, don't worry," Roman said, coughing. "We just need to work out a plan."

"Well, we better work it out soon," Dean muttered, but he looked over at Roman properly and frowned in concern. "You really don't look well, Rome. You can get back for now if you want."

"I don't care – Seth is my priority right now."

"Fine, I'm just thinking about you. Does anyone have any ideas on what we could do first?"

"Calm down, for one thing. Don't even argue with me Dean. You might be speaking slower but I can still see it from those clenched fists of yours. Panicking and worrying about him is just going to distract you and possibly make it longer for us to find him, alright? So just sit down, take a deep breath, and we'll think this through."

Dean paused for a moment, before he sat down and breathed in and out deeply. His hands slowly began to unclench, and he allowed himself to relax more. He nodded at Roman gratefully.

He was right, as he often was.

They looked over at the door when it opened, and saw Daniel walking into the building.

"I parked your car around the back of the building, Dean," he said. "Did I miss anything?"

"Not yet," said Brie.

"Okay, so obviously our main focus here is finding out where they're hiding. They wouldn't risk keeping Seth in one of their houses where there is less backup in case something went wrong for them. Keeping him at their base means that they have many more people to make sure we're kept out and he is kept in – unless, obviously, they _want_ us to find them. Don't forget that is a possibility. We need to be prepared for any plan they might have to prevent them from tricking us again."

"Look at this positively though," said AJ. "Even though we don't know where they are, at least we're fairly certain that there is only one place they are possibly keeping him. It's not like we have to discover several different places – like their houses, for example – in an attempt to find the right one."

"But we still have no idea where they could be," Dean sighed. "You're right about that, AJ, and it _is _a small relief. But how long will it take us to find where they are? We don't know whether they are close or far away, how big it is, or anything. How could we possibly figure out where they are hiding?"

It was silent for a few moments, no one quite sure what they could say to sound reassuring or what they could suggest. Dean had a very reasonable point. This whole situation had thrown them off-track. None of them had something to say.

That was, until, Brie spoke up.

"What if we managed to question one of the members of the Authority about where they're hiding?"

"That could actually work..." Roman said thoughtfully.

"But when could we get the chance to actually find one of the members? They normally don't dare to walk around alone," said John.

"It seems like it would just be a 'seize the moment' kind of thing," said AJ. "They've been near Dean's old apartment recently, haven't they? None of them noticed that Emma had managed to sneak in there to get some of Dean's things. They might still think he's going to turn up."

"How many are usually there?" Roman asked.

"Not a lot – only around two or three. In fact, it was only two yesterday, and they didn't stay for long. The only problem is that if one of them just strangely disappeared, the other would notice and guess what has happened."

"Hopefully we won't even need to take one of their members – unless it's someone who has more use to them like Kane, who we definitely couldn't chance taking, they wouldn't even want to give us Seth in return for them. But hopefully a little threatening would be enough to get _something_ out of them, even if it's only small."

"It's worth a shot," Dean said. "It's better than nothing."

"What time have they been near Dean's, AJ?" asked Daniel.

"Give me a second, I've typed it up," she said, going into her word documents. "It seems like they've been keeping to a schedule. Yesterday they were there at 12:30 up until 1:00, before that it was around the same time, give or take a few minutes. I guess they've just been going there while they eat their lunch or something."

"Right, it's 3:00 now, so in about eight hours a few of us better go over there, wait for them, and see what we can do," said Roman, looking at his watch. "We can't really do a huge lot until then. It might be best we just get some sleep for now, to make sure we have the energy."

Dean was about to protest, but when he saw the tiredness in Roman's eyes and the trickles of sweat on his forehead, he nodded in agreement.

"That seems like a good plan to me," he said. "We'd have to make sure we get back here on time from your house though, Rome."

"There's no point in going back there at this time," said Brie. "You can both stay with me and Daniel for the night. One of you is going to have to sleep on the sofa, though. We only have two bedrooms."

"I don't mind," Dean said before Roman had the chance to volunteer himself. "Roman needs more sleep than I do anyway."

Brie smiled and nodded, and the members all carefully left the building to get themselves ready for the day ahead.

* * *

><p>Seth was pushed down into a chair, and he immediately knew that he was inside wherever the Authority's base was. He heard the rushing of footsteps towards him, and jumped slightly when a hand was placed on his shoulder. The other hand yanked the blindfold off his eyes, and he had to blink several times to get used to the light.<p>

"This is the kid. You've just made me very, very happy."

The voice belonged to a woman, and when Seth's eyes adjusted, he could see that she had wavy brown hair and looked like she was in her twenties. She seemed to have a very confident attitude and Seth could tell that she must have been the leader, or at least played a very important role in the Authority.

She bent down in front of Seth. Her smile appeared to be reassuring, but Seth could see a completely different look in her eyes.

"Look here; if you talk, you won't be getting hurt. I think it'll be best for all of us if you do as we say, alright?" the woman said before taking off his gag. "Isn't that better?"

Seth stayed silent. The woman was acting sweetly, but it was easy to tell that she was simply pretending.

"He doesn't seem to like talking, does he, Steph?" a man said from her side – another muscular one. In fact, most of the men seemed rather muscular.

"Oh, he will," she said. "We can do this the easy way, Seth, or the hard way."

She leant in closer, so close that Seth could feel the warmth of her breath.

"You must have gone to Reigns' house with your little new boyfriend after we found his house, right? You must know the way... As well as where they're hiding their base. So tell me, Seth..."

She moved even closer so that she was right by his ear.

"...Where are they?"

"I... I..."

He couldn't reveal something like this. He wasn't even part of Justice, and he knew he was in danger, but the thought of Dean getting hurt, _all _of them getting hurt terrified him. He had always been loyal, had never given away someone's secret, and that wasn't going to just disappear.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Stephanie laughed, getting to her feet. "Wrong answer."

She looked behind her and nodded at a large man, who walked forward. Seth's heart skipped a beat – he recognised him as Lesnar.

"I did say, Seth, that we could have done this the easy way..." Stephanie sighed, looking down at her fingernails. "But it looks like you're being a bit stubborn."

She nodded once more at Lesnar, and Seth hadn't managed to brace himself in time for when a large fist collided with his cheek. He gasped loudly at the sudden force, and could almost immediately taste the blood.

"You don't seem like the stupid kind, Seth... So I'm fairly certain that you know we can do far worse than that."

Seth gulped, but still didn't say a word.

"Wow, maybe you are stupid... Alright, I did give you the chance, but it looks like you didn't take it."

He braced himself for another punch, but what he didn't expect was for Lesnar's fingers to dig roughly into the stitched-up wound on his leg.

His scream echoed from the walls of the building, and tears stung in his eyes, but Lesnar didn't seem to be thinking about stopping. Seth's screaming soon silenced to simply deep breaths as he squeezed his eyes shut to try and block out the pain. His head soon began to feel light-headed from the immense pain that felt almost as bad as when the bullet had been shot into his leg several days back. After what seemed like an eternity, Stephanie ordered Lesnar to stop.

"It's only going to get worse for you," she said, making her own way to Seth's chair. He winced when she roughly pulled his head back by his hair, but it was far better than Lesnar's fingers digging into his wound. "So you might as well just tell us. You have to know _something._"

"Steph?" the man next to her said. She sighed and looked at him.

"What, Hunter? You can see I am busy here."

"Listen, we-"

He stopped and looked at Seth.

"Come over here," he said in a quieter voice. She sighed once more, but nodded and followed him to the other side of the room where they spoke in whispers that Seth was unable to pick up. The others stood silently, unsure of what to do without their obvious leader. That was, until, the man Seth knew was Orton stepped closer to him.

"I can see why Ambrose has gotten so attached to you," he said, looking Seth up and down. His hand reached for Seth's chin and his head was lifted up so he was looking into Orton's eyes. Seth didn't like the apparent lust he could see in them. "You're a pretty little thing, aren't you?"

"Orton," a girl's voice said – Seth was too panicked to look away from Orton's eyes to see who it came from.

"Yeah, you're going to be fun to-"

"_Orton!"_

Orton sighed and turned away from Seth to turn to the girl, while Seth's eyes stayed fixed on him.

"Not now, alright?" she said sternly. "Seriously, is sex all you think about?"

"Eh, only some of the time," Orton shrugged.

"Well, now isn't the time. This is business, not pleasure for you."

"Fine, whatever you say," he said, walking away from Seth, making him sigh in relief. He finally looked over at the girl who had spoken up, and was shocked to see she looked almost _exactly _like Brie. In fact, there wasn't any obvious difference. That's when he remembered that Brie had a twin sister who joined the Authority – this must be Nikki.

Beside her was a black-haired girl in a leather jacket, and both her and Nikki looked highly irritated at Orton's behaviour. The rest around them, however, looked rather amused instead.

"What do you think they're talking about over there?" the girl next to Nikki asked.

"Obviously something about this kid here, otherwise Hunter would have just said it," Orton said, before smirking at her. "You know Paige, since Nikki doesn't want me doing anything to him..."

"Don't even bother saying it, Orton," she interrupted, sighing. "I hope they're done soon; I bloody need my sleep."

"I don't think we'll even be getting any sleep tonight," said Nikki. "Oh, they're heading over here now."

"Right, none of you are going home tonight," said Stephanie.

"But I-" Paige started, but Hunter quickly interrupted her.

"We have more important things than you getting a couple of hours of sleep. Give us a few moments to get things together. Randy, take Seth to that room over there. We don't want him overhearing our conversation."

"Wait, I can take him..." Nikki started, but stopped when Stephanie glared at her.

"Hunter ordered _Orton _to take him, not you."

It was a simple sentence, but the tone of authority in her voice was enough to make Nikki nod and look down on the floor, though Seth could see the concern on her face.

Orton pulled Seth up by his arm, before he grinned and put an arm around the smaller boy's waist.

"Don't worry about it, you're safe with me," he winked, and that only made Seth panic more. Orton walked with Seth – who didn't have a choice considering his hands were still tied behind his back and he was in a room with people much stronger than him – to the door leading to another room.

"Oh, and Randy?"

Orton turned around to face Hunter, his eyebrow raised.

"We need you back in a few minutes, alright? So if you're really that desperate, don't take too long."

Those words did nothing to help reassure Seth that Orton was simply going to lead him to the room, and his suspicions were correct when he was shoved into the wall almost immediately after Orton closed the door. His shoulders were pinned against the wall by two large hands and Orton looked down at him with the same look in his eyes that he had earlier.

"You know..." Orton said quietly, smirking. "You're probably one of the cutest ones we've had in a long time."

Seth had no time to react before Orton's hands moved down to under Seth's thighs and he was lifted up with his legs either side of Orton's so that his head was at the same level as Orton's. The man's chest pressed against Seth's so that he was still against the wall, his tied hands digging into it, but he barely noticed the pain from it.

"Nah, I was wrong. You're _definitely _the cutest."

Suddenly, Orton's lips were forcibly placed onto Seth's. He tried to move his head away from Orton, but the grip on his legs tightened and it was quite clear that he had literally no control. Orton's tongue soon slipped into Seth's mouth, and it was easy for Seth to feel the erection through Orton's jeans, but he had never felt less aroused in his life.

Orton soon parted from Seth's lips and kissed down his neck, making him gasp out of shock.

"You're liking this, aren't you?" Orton said quietly, grinning. "Don't worry; the best is soon to come."

Orton turned away from the wall and pushed Seth down onto the cold floor. He hissed in pain when his leg came into contact with the hard surface, but he almost completely forgot about the pain when Orton climbed on top of him. His hands trailed down Seth's torso before his smirk grew and moved over to the buckle of Seth's belt, which is when Seth somehow found the courage to smash his knee into Orton's stomach and quickly attempt to move himself away from him.

"_Don't!" _Seth cried, ignoring the pain shooting through his leg completely as he stared over at Orton with wide eyes full of horror. The man caught his breath and looked over at Seth with narrowed eyes, and that's when he realised what he actually just did.

"Don't you dare..." Orton whispered harshly, his hand now around Seth's throat. "...Do that again."

"Orton!"

Orton cursed under his breath, removed his hand from Seth and turned around at the sound of Stephanie's voice by the door.

"Can't you see I'm a bit busy here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, your uncontrollable urge for sex is more important than us actually doing something _useful _with him?" she questioned, placing a hand on her hip. "If you have time later, I don't care what you do with him – hell, it might even help him talk. But don't even _think _about saying you're 'busy' when we actually have important things to discuss. Get your ass off that floor and into that room before I fucking kick it there."

"Look, I'm sorry, I'm getting up now!" Orton said. He turned to Seth before he left the room, however, and smirked. "I'll finish with you later."

"_Now, _Orton!"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming!"

Stephanie slammed the door shut after them both, and Seth breathed out in relief. Hopefully whatever they were discussing would take a while and keep Orton busy, because he didn't even want to think about what could happen if he came back.

He hadn't realised he was crying until he noticed the tear stains on his t-shirt. He was on the floor, almost completely helpless, and he had already had enough of the Authority even though he knew that there was a lot more to come. He just had to hope that Dean had told Roman what happened and that they were trying to figure out where he was being held.

_Just please, Dean... _Seth thought to himself, closing his eyes. _Don't blame yourself._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: ***waits patiently for the Orton fans to all hate me*

Seriously though, this is why I normally prefer AUs in any fandom. It's more fun to imagine them in a completely different sort of life than the ones they generally live, which is why I enjoy writing this so much. Sassy Steph is probably the most fun person I've ever written, in all honesty.

Anyway, I hope you're not all hating me too much, and that you're enjoying the story. The next one should be a good one, so stay tuned!

(also feel free to leave a review because they make me very happy)


	6. The Switch

**A/N: **Somehow this is the longest chapter yet despite it only being three days since my last update.

Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

><p>Hostage<p>

Chapter Six – The Switch

* * *

><p>Several members of Justice were preparing themselves several hours later. They didn't chance that many people going, but Dean – naturally, as he wasn't going to stay behind, Brie, Daniel and John volunteered themselves. Roman was originally going to go with them instead of John, but as well as his help being better alongside AJ and her cameras, his fever hadn't reduced very much and Dean had convinced him to stay behind with the others.<p>

After making sure that their cameras were surely hidden, as well as their ear pieces, the four of them were in Brie's car and were on their way to Dean's old apartment block.

"Anyone have any ideas of how we're actually going to get whoever might be there separated?" she asked.

"Emma noticed that they generally walked around separately after a while," AJ said from the base, looking through the notes she had taken from Emma while Roman watched their cameras. "She said that she hung around carefully for a while to inspect their movements. They apparently spent around fifteen minutes separate, probably so that they could both keep a watch on more than one area at the same time."

"Hopefully they will keep to their little schedule," said Dean as he stared out of the window from the backseat. "If we can't get anything from this then we're back to nothing."

"I'm sure they will," said AJ reassuringly.

"Turn here," Daniel said, nodding in the direction of a road leading left. "It's best to remain low, especially until we spot them."

"Of course," Brie replied, turning round into the alleyway. She stopped the car and all four of them immediately jumped out. They walked cautiously around the corner and looked over at the apartment block in the distance.

"It's not long until they will most likely be there, now," said AJ. "Keep looking out for them – we can't risk both of them seeing you."

"Actually, it seems like they are here already," Brie said. "Look, they're over there. It's Nikki and Paige."

"If they are here earlier than usual and they sent those two rather than two of their stronger members, then they most likely won't be coming here anymore," said AJ. "It's lucky that they still came here one last time."

"It looks like they're separating now, too," said Dean. He took a step forward but Roman's voice immediately stopped him.

"Wait until the four of you have a clear moment to get to just one of them," he ordered. "We _have _to be careful with this."

"Who are we even going to question?" Daniel asked.

"Nikki," Brie immediately answered. "If she was never loyal to me, she's not going to be very loyal to her new mommy and daddy, either."

"Nikki it is, then," AJ said, peering closer at Dean's camera. "It looks like Paige is going to head inside the building anyway, probably to make sure that Dean's not in there. Nikki seems like the perfect option."

"Paige has just got in there now," said Brie, walking forward. "It's a good job that they either have too much pride, or are too stupid to use something as simple as cameras."

"Seth's probably a good distraction for them right now, anyway," Dean said, breathing in deeply. John put a comforting hand on his shoulder before the four of them carefully made their way around to Nikki. Brie reached into her pocket for her knife and, being the most agile out of the four, jumped forward and immediately had Nikki pinned to the wall with her knife at her throat.

"Shout for Paige and I will not hesitate to use this," Brie hissed.

"Oh, Brie, it was nice of you to show..." Nikki chuckled, but gulped when the knife was edged closer to her skin.

"I would start talking if you know what's best for you, _sis,_" Brie said, tilting her head. "Time is ticking."

"It's a bit hard to concentrate when I have a knife at my throat, don't you think?"

"Better start thinking hard, then, shouldn't you?"

"Look, I will tell you what you need to know, alright?"

"Wait, what?" Daniel said, looking puzzled, but Brie's face stayed stern and she didn't even budge.

"I wonder why I can't trust you... Oh yeah, maybe it's because you left your own _boyfriend _and even your own _sister _to fucking join the Authority. I guess that kind of causes trust issues."

"Brie, just listen to me-"

"Oh, now you want to talk to me?"

"Brie, listen to her," Dean muttered. "I don't trust her any more than you do, but we're running out of time."

Brie sighed, but nodded.

"Fine, but make it quick."

"I don't want to work for them anymore."

"So now you change your mind? It's a bit late for that, don't you think?"

"Brie, they're horrible. They're absolutely horrible."

"We already know that. Tell us something we _don't _know."

"I never knew that it would turn out this bad," Nikki said, her voice softening to almost a whisper. "It was just all games before, you know? I know it was wrong to leave you and John, but I just wanted to feel free and that's what they promised. At first it wasn't that bad, I missed you guys but I enjoyed it, I have to admit. But then they started doing such unnecessary things... It's painful to watch, but I never had an escape. I _had _to stay. I had to at least try to protect those we keep hostages, though it's hard as soon as Orton-"

"Orton?" Dean said suddenly, looking at her with worry. "He's already done something to Seth?"

Her eyes looked down at the floor, and she breathed in deeply.

"I was hoping not, as Stephanie got Orton out of there because we had to have one of our discussions... But he went back in with him after we were finished talking..."

"I'm going to kill him, I swear to God I'm going to kill him!" Dean hissed, his fists clenching.

"I tried to get Orton away from him, but I couldn't do anything."

"It's understandable," Brie sighed. "But you can still help us, Nikki. What was the discussion about?"

"It's too long for me to explain here, Paige will be back soon enough."

"At least tell us where your base is," Dean said. "If you really want to leave them, you'd tell us."

"You can't just arrive at the base and expect to be able to do something! You might as well just skip in there and sing at the top of your lungs!"

"Then what are we supposed to do, huh?"

"I don't know, but trust me, that won't work," Nikki sighed. "You need someone to sneak in there, but not all of you at once, not at first, anyway. I barely even know how to get there myself – they've never trusted me to drive there and it's a complicated route."

"Then we'll switch," said Brie. The rest looked at her in utter shock, and absolute disbelief from Nikki. "You want to prove we can trust you? Go back to base with them. You're not going to be able to do anything there apart from either stay still with your mouth shut or help."

"But you can't-"

"Why can't I? We're twins. They won't know the difference."

"Brie, are you crazy?" Daniel said, making her turn to him. Nikki hadn't even moved from the wall she had been pinned to – all she had done was placed her hand over her mouth and started shaking her head. "This is practically suicide! You're dead if they notice the change!"

"Then I won't let them notice," Brie said. "Look, it's the best shot we have. We can both go around there, quickly swap clothes, and then bam. I'm her, she's me. It's a good job you haven't dyed your hair recently."

"Brie, I can't let you do this..." Nikki whispered. Brie turned to her, smiling sadly.

"If you really want to help, you'll let me do this."

"Brie, this is very dangerous," said Roman, quite shocked at her bravery. "If anything goes wrong..."

"It won't go wrong. I'll be fine," Brie said. She grabbed Nikki's arm softly, nodding at the corner of the building. "It's private down there. You guys make sure you get back to the car if you hear Paige."

Nikki stayed silent as she was pulled around the corner, and could barely remove her clothes from her hands shaking so much.

"I seriously don't want you doing this," she said, reluctantly taking Brie's shirt and putting it on.

"If you can help them, that's enough for me to forgive you," said Brie. "But it's taking a lot inside of me to trust you. They will not hesitate to hurt you if it turns out you're lying about this."

As soon as Nikki had finished changing clothes, she grabbed onto Brie's arms and looked into her eyes.

"Look at me," she said. "Do I look like I'm lying to you?"

Brie saw the worry in her eyes, and noticed the few tears that Nikki had allowed to fall.

"No," Brie said softly. "You don't."

"Wear this perfume and put on this lipstick," Nikki said as she reached into her bag and handed her the items. "Remember, you don't have to do this."

"And you're supposed to be the fearless one," Brie chuckled after she had finished and had taken the bag from Nikki. "I'll be fine, don't worry about me."

"Nikki, where are you?"

"Sounds like she's round the front," said Brie. "Go back to the others and make sure the four of you get to the car safely."

She gasped when she was suddenly pulled into a hug by Nikki.

"Promise me you'll be careful."

"I will be," Brie replied, and found herself immediately returning the hug. "We always used to trick people years ago, right?"

"Nikki?"

"I'm over here!" Brie called, and squeezed her sister's arm before quickly walking over to the other side of the building without another word.

* * *

><p>The car journey back to Justice's base was silent. Nikki had understood completely when they said she had to be blindfolded – it was hard to trust someone who had betrayed you, after all. It was removed when they stepped inside the building, and they quickly walked over to Roman and AJ to see how Brie was handling her choice.<p>

"I can't believe she did this," Roman murmured, his mic away from his mouth in case Paige heard his voice as he looked through Brie's camera. "I almost had a heart attack when she said you should both switch."

"I didn't want her to-"

"I know," he said. "But the only reason I didn't get you guys to stop her was because she has never let me down before. I just have to hope that she's right about you."

"Wait, listen," said AJ, nodding at Roman's computer.

"It just wasn't right, you know?" Paige said to Brie from the driver's seat as she turned on the engine. "What Orton did to Seth this morning. There was just no need for it. And now they're doing God knows what to him to try and get him to tell us where they are... I just don't know how long I can keep doing this, Nikki."

"Tell us where they are?" Dean repeated. "Why doesn't he just say? It doesn't affect him."

"He didn't say a word about it. Not even a hint," said Nikki, sighing.

"Be quiet a minute, I want to hear what Brie is saying," said Daniel.

"It's getting too much for me, as well. It was all fun and games at first, but now they're just being cruel."

"Hey, are you alright? Your voice seems a bit... Off."

The members around the laptop panicked, but relaxed when Brie immediately replied.

"I just think I'm getting a sore throat," she said. "I hope I don't get too ill."

"They probably wouldn't give you much time to rest if you do," Paige sighed. "But you are looking a bit more pale than usual. Hopefully they won't make you do too much."

"I was really expecting Paige to notice," said John. "But Brie is doing perfectly."

"Most of the time you can only tell us apart when we're stood next to each other," said Nikki.

"She still needs to look out for the rest of them, though. Is anyone memorising this route? I'm completely lost."

"I've caught up with most of it, but not all," said AJ, frowning. "I'm worried about her camera dying soon, too. We won't be able to watch her movements. What if they notice it, as well?"

"They shouldn't do," Nikki reassured her. "I didn't even know she _did _have a camera until I came back here. It's definitely not obvious."

"Look, Paige is stopping the car," said Dean, pointing at the screen.

"Hopefully they're not hurting him too much," Paige sighed, turning off the engine. "Come on."

Brie got out of the passenger seat and closed the car door after her, and immediately raised her head so that the others were able to watch her movements. She followed Paige to the door, and was immediately relieved when she started typing out the password. The door opened and the two girls stepped inside.

"Oh, you're back! You've been missing the show!" Stephanie called when they entered, resting her hands on both of Seth's shoulders. He was sat down in a chair, his hands still tied his back, though what made the Justice members flinch – and what made Dean curse loudly – was the bruises on the side of his face, around his eye and around his throat, as well as the blood trickling down from his mouth. "He's still as silent as ever. Maybe he's gotten a little attached to one of the members... Probably Ambrose."

"You think he's falling for Ambrose?" Hunter asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just maybe," Stephanie said, crouching down behind Seth's chair. She grinned and pulled Seth's hair back so that she was speaking into his ear. "Are you, huh? Is that why you're not saying anything?"

"How can you tell?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Stephanie chuckled, getting up off the floor. "Have you seen how he looks at you as soon as you mention Ambrose's name? Not to mention that he obviously must have _some _trust to allow Ambrose to drive him home on his own, and not bring Reigns along."

Dean was holding his head, trying to get around what Stephanie was saying. She believed that Seth was falling for _him? _

"Well, whether he is or not, he's not talking."

"Oh, he _will _talk," she grinned, squeezing Seth's shoulder. "Are you thirsty, Seth?"

She nodded at Hunter and Orton. Hunter walked over to the sink and grabbed a bucket, while Orton grabbed Seth and pulled him up off the chair. He was held by his hair by the table, and Hunter placed the bucket down onto it.

"Oh no, they can't do that," AJ gasped horrified, covering her mouth.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Nikki said, closing her eyes. "They've done it on others to question them before."

"But I looked at Seth's medical history – just to make sure," AJ said quietly. "He's had a history of problems with his lungs... He had recovered but was advised to go underwater as little as possible, just in case he couldn't quite catch his breath after."

"He _what?" _ Dean shouted, getting more furious by the minute. "He has a fucking history with lung problems and they're going to shove his head in water to get him to talk! Don't they know what they're doing?"

"They either don't know or just don't care," AJ whispered, biting her lip.

"I don't even know how Brie can watch this," said Daniel.

Orton was now holding Seth's head above the water, and Stephanie was leaning against the table, grinning.

"You can just talk, you know. It's really not that hard."

But like before, Seth didn't say a word, despite the fear written on his face.

"Well, have it your way, then," Stephanie shrugged, and waved her hand at Orton. The man nodded, and didn't hesitate to tighten his hold on Seth's hair and plunge his head down into the water. He couldn't resist against Orton's force at all, and had no hands to support himself on the table. His head was kept under the water much longer than it should have been before Orton finally pulled it out. Seth spluttered and gasped for air, but it wasn't long before he was back under.

"I can't fucking believe this," Dean hissed through clenched teeth. "I have never hated them more than I do right now in my entire life."

Nikki had tears in her eyes, and by the time Seth's head was plunged under a third time, she had allowed a couple to fall. She turned to Roman, a desperate look on her face.

"Can't you say something to Brie?"

"I can't risk anyone hearing-"

"Rome," Dean muttered. "Please."

Roman nodded, and brought the mic closer to his mouth.

"Brie, you need to do something," he said quietly, and the movement of the camera showed that she was listening. "Seth can't deal with any more of this – his has had problems with his lungs in the past and this sort of treatment could kill him."

"Wait, stop!" Brie called out to them. Seth's head was pulled out of the water, and everyone looked at her suspiciously.

"And why do you want us to do that, Nikki?" Stephanie asked, folding her arms.

"If you carry on with this you're just going to end up killing him," Brie said. "How would you question him then?"

"A bit of water won't kill him," Orton laughed, and was about to put Seth's head under the water for a fourth time before Stephanie grabbed his arm.

"No, she has a point," she sighed. "It _did _say in his records that he has had lung problems. We'll leave it for a while before carrying on, because we're clearly not getting anywhere yet."

"You're the boss," Orton shrugged, and let go of Seth's hair. He fell against the table, coughing and gasping in an attempt to fill his lungs with air. "Shall I take him back to the room...?"

"No, not you," Stephanie said, a slight smirk on her face. "With the state he's in now, he won't even stay alive with how you can be. Nikki can, considering she seems so concerned about him."

"I'm not concerned about _him," _said Brie. "I'm concerned about us not being able to use him."

"Right, of course," Stephanie said, looking sceptical. "Whatever you say. Just put him back in there for now before we do any more... Persuading."

Brie nodded and walked over to Seth, held his arm softly and tugged him in the direction of the room he was being held in. As soon as she closed the door after them, he took a few steps before he collapsed onto the floor, still coughing.

"Seth, are you alright?" Brie asked worriedly, crouching down on the floor besides him. "Here, let me untie your hands..."

It took a lot of her strength to undo the knots, but she eventually managed to untie the ropes around his wrists. He winced at the mixture of both relief and pain as the blood rushed into his hands, which immediately clutched at his chest. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply.

"Why... Why did you help me?" He said after a couple of minutes, looking at her with tired eyes.

"I'm sure that Nikki would have done the same," Brie chuckled.

"Wait... What?" he gasped. "Brie?"

"Yes, that's me," Brie grinned. "Nikki and I swapped places."

"But... Why? _How_?"

"She's working with us now, at least, we hope. She's going to help them save you, and I'm going to do my best here."

"You're all doing this for me?"

"Of course we are," said Brie, smiling sadly. "We're not letting you stay here just to get hurt more."

"Brie, your camera is running out of battery!" Roman said, looking at the faltering screen with worry. Dean quickly reached over to the mic that Roman was holding and held it to his mouth.

"Brie, let me to talk to Seth before it dies," Dean asked hurriedly.

"Seth, here," Brie said, removing the tiny camera from behind her ear. "It's going to run out of battery and Dean wants to talk to you. Don't worry; I have Nikki's phone and I know Roman's number."

Seth took it from her and held it to his ear.

"Dean?" he said quietly.

"Seth, we're going to do everything we can do get you out of there as soon as possible," Dean said, closing his eyes. "I'm so fucking sorry about this, I really am. I never wanted this to happen to you."

"I know," Seth replied, a small smile on his face.

"I-"

At that moment, the battery had drained completely, and Dean cursed under his breath. He stepped away from the table, his arms folded as he looked down at the ground.

"Dean, are you alright?" Roman asked. Dean looked up, fury clear in his eyes.

"I will be," he said quietly. "I will be as soon as we get him out of there."

* * *

><p>"I better put that away," Brie said, taking the camera from Seth. She rested her other hand on his shoulder when she noticed a few tears trickling down his face. "Hey, it'll be alright... We'll get you out of here, I promise."<p>

They both looked up in horror when the door opened, fearing that it would be Orton, but it was only Paige.

"They were wondering why you were taking so long," she said after she closed the door, and walked over. She crouched by Seth, looking at him with concern. "It's a good job that you spoke up, Nikki."

She looked down at his free hands, sighing.

"I know you're probably trying to make him feel comfortable, at least as much as he can in this place, but they're not going to like it if they see that you untied his hands. You might want to retie them."

Brie tried to put down the camera behind her in as much of a subtle way as she could, but Paige noticed one of her hands go behind her back.

"What are you hiding there?" Paige asked, and quickly snatched the tiny camera out of Brie's hand. She looked at it, confusion on her face. "Did he have it? No, Orton would have noticed when he..."

Her words trailed off, as she looked at Brie with suspicion.

"Well, I..." she started, but for once, she was lost for words.

"Unless... It's not his..." Paige said. She suddenly gasped as she realised what had happened. She breathed in deeply, looking at Brie with worry. "You do realise how much trouble you have got yourself into, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

"Yes, you do," Paige said, lowering her voice. "If they find out that you're not Nikki, they won't hesitate to kill you."

"They won't find out. Not if you don't tell them, anyway," said Brie, not taking her eyes off Paige's.

"Of course I'm not going to tell. Why would I? I want to get out of here just as much as Nikki did. I'll help you."

"How can I trust you?"

Paige sighed, and placed the camera into Nikki's bag.

"You don't have any other choice. If you want to go through with this without getting caught, and want help bringing them down, you're going to need my help, okay? It's too risky otherwise. If you think that I'm going to betray you with this, just remember what we were talking about when I thought you are Nikki. I hate this place, bloody hell I'm seventeen, I don't want to ruin the rest of my life with this bastards."

Brie paused, before she nodded slowly.

"Alright, I will let you help me. But Justice won't even question hurting you if it turns out you're lying."

"Then I have nothing to worry about," Paige grinned. She picked up the ropes that Brie had discarded onto the floor, and Seth obliged when she tied his hands behind his back once again, a lot looser than before. "We have to get back to my house. It's a good job that Nikki and I live together."

"I didn't want to leave Seth here on his own overnight, never mind for the rest of the day!"

"We don't have a choice," Paige sighed. "Before I came in here I told them that you were unwell and that you needed to go home and rest. They actually said that we can go home until they call us back in, as we're not needed at the moment. They're going to get suspicious if we don't go."

"But I can't just-"

"Just go," said Seth. "They won't be back for a few hours."

"But then what?" cried Brie, holding her head in her hands. "They'll leave you for a bit so that they don't end up _killing _you with how they treated you, despite your lungs. But they're just going to come straight back. They're not going to stop until you talk."

"But what they would do to you is far worse than what they'd do to me. They don't want me dead, but if they find out that you're not Nikki, then killing you is going to be at the top of their list."

"I just don't want to go, knowing that you're getting hurt more..."

"Staying here won't help saving me from them. But going back with Paige will give you time to talk to the others and start working things out will help more. Just don't worry."

Brie looked like she was going to argue, but instead she sighed, nodded, and got to her feet.

"You can call Roman as soon as we get to the car," said Paige. "You do have Nikki's phone, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do," Brie replied. She squeezed Seth's shoulder, smiled sadly, and followed Paige out of the room, who locked the door after them.

"What took you so long in there?" Stephanie frowned when she looked up at them.

"I was just trying to ask him a couple of questions. I thought that asking him in a nicer way after what happened might have worked," said Brie, silently hoping that Stephanie would believe her.

"That's definitely not going to work on that kid, Nikki," she chuckled. "He might be small but sure as hell is tougher than he looks. Even if he's not strong, he definitely has spirit. He's the sort of guy I like. Anyway, we'll call you if we need you."

Both Brie and Paige nodded, and silently walked out of the building. Paige sighed in relief when they made it to her car, and grinned at Brie.

"You sure are good at lying."

* * *

><p>Dean turned to Nikki after the room was silent for a few moments, a questioning look on his face.<p>

"So what exactly _did _you discuss earlier?" he asked.

"I completely forgot about that with everything that happened with Brie," said Roman, sighing.

"It's about their further plans with Seth," Nikki started, sitting up straighter. "They were saying how if he wasn't going to talk, they need to do something else with him."

"Is that to get the money from him?" Dean questioned. Nikki hesitated before she continued talking.

"Yes, sort of... It's a bit more complicated than that. They said how if Seth isn't going to say anything, and they know that he might not do with how loyal he seems to you already, then they need to find another way to find out where Roman lives and where this base is. They are quite confident that if they can't get Seth to talk, they can easily lure you in and get _you _to talk instead, especially with Dean. They seem to believe that Seth is the key to taking you down. The money is just a bonus."

"But how would they be able to get the money for Seth _and _use him for leverage?" AJ asked.

"Well, they said that if they can't get Seth to talk, they would ring his parents, arrange a time and place for them to meet, get the money from them and... Well, kill them. Then they'd be able to bring Seth back to their base, and carry on with their plan _with _the extra money."

"That seems like something the Authority would do," Roman sighed again, rubbing his forehead. "Do you have any idea when they would do this?"

Nikki shook her head.

"They didn't say, but I can imagine it would be fairly soon. Brie has my phone, so I'm sure that if she hears anything she'll call you."

"This might help us to work this out," said Dean. He turned to Roman, who was coughing. "Roman, you need your strength and you hardly slept last night. Go and lie down for a while."

"But I need to-"

"We've got it. I don't want you to make yourself worse just because you've not been sleeping enough."

Roman was about to object, but then nodded and went over to the spare room.

"Right, so obviously we need to stop the Authority from doing this to Seth's parents," said Dean, placing his hands down onto the table. "If we-"

He was interrupted by Roman's phone ringing besides the laptop. He picked it up, answered the call, and put it on speaker while he motioned for everyone to remain quiet.

"Hello?"

"_Dean, is that you? It's me, Brie. Where is Roman?"_

"I told him to go and rest for a while – he's still not feeling so good. Where are you now?"

"_I'm almost at Paige's apartment."_

"Wait, almost?" Dean said, frowning. "Are you driving alone?"

"_No, Paige is driving, but she's working with us."_

"How can you be certain?"

"_I can tell when someone is lying, and she definitely wasn't. She likes being with the Authority just as much as Nikki does. She wants to help us save Seth. If I'm here then I can start to listen in on their plans and tell you everything, and Paige can help me. She wants to."_

"It's true," said Nikki, nodding. "Both of us never liked helping the Authority and tried to stay out of it as much as possible."

"If it's true then it's good for you to have someone on your side over there," said Dean. "Have you heard of the Authority's plans?"

"_Yes, Paige explained it to me before I called. When they decide on when they'll get in contact with Seth's parents I will try to tell you as soon as possible."_

"But what if you aren't there when they decide?"

"_Stephanie said that she'll call Paige if they need us, so don't worry. But how are we going to stop anything from happening to Seth's parents?"_

"By us going instead," Dean smirked. "They're not going to come to us, and we're not going to go to them, at least not at their base. It looks like we're going to meet them halfway."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Ahh, things are starting to look a little bit better for Seth now.

I'm not too sure how long this story is going to be. I know what's going to happen next, and after that there isn't really much to write. I will try to think of how much I can extend it when I start writing the next chapter.

Anyway, thank you so much for all of the reviews and such so far! I literally update this story at night and don't check my emails until the morning because I like to read and reply to reviews while I eat my breakfast. It's honestly something which brings me joy!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.


	7. Confrontation

**A/N: **I'm sorry that this took almost two weeks to update. I still have to finish the chapter for my other story, yet. I've just been distracted with other things recently.

Anyway, at least it's here now. Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

><p>Hostage<p>

Chapter Seven - Confrontation

* * *

><p>"Wait, meet them halfway?" said Paige as she listened to Brie's phone call, frowning. "That seems like a big risk."<p>

"I think it actually seems like a good idea," said Brie, both to Paige and to Dean. "We obviously can't get Seth out of there on our own; it's far too dangerous for all three of us. There's not much use in you all charging into the base, not with what's been going on there recently. You're just going to end up getting killed. It seems like the best way to catch them off guard is to go to them instead of Seth's parents. As long as Paige and I can manage to get the information to you, it would be the best option."

"_They have no idea that you are not Nikki and as long as you can keep it that way, they will know nothing about us confronting them instead of Seth's parents. We just have to be careful once they know it's us," _said Dean.

"That is one of the bad things about this, but it seems like the best plan we have and as long as Seth doesn't say anything, they'd go through with it soon enough."

"_Hang on, what if they use Seth's parents as a way to get him to talk? They might say to him that his parents would be killed unless he talks. If anything would convince him to, it's that."_

"I hadn't thought about that," said Brie, biting her lip.

"We'll just make sure that we tell Seth what's going on before he does," said Paige. "If he knows that nothing will happen to his parents and the Authority doesn't know themselves, he won't say anything."

"We just have to make sure that we will _definitely _tell him about what is going on," said Brie.

"_They'd probably want you to go back if they ask him that," _said Dean. _"At least, I hope."_

"No, you're right," Paige smiled. "They would at _least _let us know and we'd be able to quickly make our way back."

"I will call you back as soon as we know when they're going through with the plan."

"_Alright, make sure you definitely do though so that I can get in contact with his parents."_

"Don't worry, I will," said Brie, before ending the call. She looked up and for the first time took a proper note of her surroundings. She was surprised to see that they were parked in the driveway of the house she used to live in with Nikki when they were younger. The two girls exited the car and Brie found she was feeling strangely excited while Paige was unlocking the front door.

It hadn't changed at all since Brie had moved in with Daniel. The familiar house made her feel relaxed and she couldn't have been gladder that Paige was both on her side and that she now lived with Nikki. When they entered the lounge, Brie immediately looked above the fireplace, and was shocked to see that the photo of her and Nikki still hung there.

"She never took that down," Paige said when she noticed Brie looking at the photo. "She's always missed you, you know. She felt guilty and regretted what she had done almost immediately after she joined the Authority, I've always been able to tell. She just hasn't had the opportunity to get away from them until now."

Brie sat down next to Paige silently, though she no longer had any doubts about Nikki's loyalty.

* * *

><p>Dean placed Roman's phone down on the table, and the room was silent for a few moments before he turned to AJ and spoke.<p>

"AJ, could you find Seth's parents' number for me? It would be best if we get that down as soon as possible, considering we don't know exactly when the Authority plan to make their move."

"I'm on it," AJ nodded, and immediately began typing on her laptop. Only a few minutes later, she had turned the screen to Dean and he was typing it out into his own phone.

"Hopefully Roman is alright for this," he sighed. "He doesn't seem to be getting any better."

"I'm sure he will be," AJ smiled. "He just didn't get much time to rest. He's got the chance to for a while now and I'm sure it'll help. Plus, we know how determined he can be. He'll be fine."

Dean nodded and turned to the others.

"You might want to get yourselves ready, too. Guns, knives, whatever you need. Our goal is Seth but if we can take them down while we're at it, that's even better."

They didn't hesitate to follow the order and quickly separated. Dean sat down next to AJ, who was in the process of shutting down her laptop. She looked at him, concern written on her face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"What? Nothing's wrong."

"Don't lie to me, I can tell," she frowned. "It's Seth, isn't it?"

Dean stayed silent and turned away from her.

"Dean, look at me."

He sighed and looked back at her, and AJ could immediately see the worry in his eyes.

"You don't have to worry about him, Dean. We'll have him back in a few hours, I'm sure of it."

"Exactly, in a few hours. More things could happen in that time and we can't do anything to stop it. He's already been beaten, almost drowned and Orton even dared to-"

He breathed in deeply, his fists clenching.

"I just don't want anything else to happen."

"It might not even happen," said AJ, placing a reassuring hand on Dean's shoulder. "They probably won't even touch him for the next few hours after what they did – in fact, they might only try to convince him to talk by telling him about his parents. As long as Brie and Paige can tell him what is going on, this should go smoothly."

"What if when we confront them it goes completely wrong? What if-"

"Don't you even start with that! You're Dean Ambrose, come on. You of all people should know that we're capable of doing this. They won't even be prepared for us. There's no reason to doubt this at all, so _don't._"

"You're right," Dean nodded, sighing. "Worrying about this isn't even going to help."

"I always know best," she chuckled, getting up out of her seat. She made her way over to the door, though she paused when she reached for the handle. She turned her head around and looked back at Dean. "Oh, and you can stop blaming yourself too. Don't even argue with me."

She grinned and exited the room before Dean could even answer.

* * *

><p>"It's been a couple of hours now," said Brie, checking her watch. "I was expecting them to have called us by now."<p>

"There's no use calling them ourselves though; they'd get suspicious," Paige sighed, settling herself back on her sofa. Just as she did so, her phone rang, and she quickly got it out of her pocket. "It's Stephanie."

She answered the call and immediately put it on speaker.

"Hello?"

"_We need you back here now – Nikki can rest later."_

"Why, are we going through with the plan? I thought we weren't doing that for a few hours yet, at least?"

"_There's no use waiting around. This is probably the perfect way to get the kid to talk. Even if he doesn't... Well, a gun pointed right at his parents' heads is probably going to be the best thing to convince him with, don't you think?"_

"It sounds like a good idea to me," Paige said, looking up at Brie. "We'll make our way over there now. Have you started questioning him again yet?"

"_No, and if you hurry, you won't miss most of it like last time."_

"We will. We'll only be about ten minutes."

"_Don't keep us waiting."_

Paige was about to reply but Stephanie had already ended the call. She picked up her car keys, and Brie didn't say a word as she followed her out of the house and into the car. She quickly got out Nikki's phone and dialled Dean's number. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when he picked up almost immediately.

"_Is this Brie?"_

"Yes, it is. Listen, we just got a call from Stephanie and we've been asked to head back to the base as she wants to go through with the plan earlier than we thought."

"_It's a good job we're ready for this, then. But how are you going to get the chance to tell Seth about what's going on?"_

"We'll think of something, don't worry," she replied, not wanting to admit that the thought was worrying her. "It'll take us about ten minutes to get back there, and then she will probably call his parents after trying to use them to get Seth to talk... So call them yourselves in about half an hour, alright? That should work."

"_I will do. Thank you for the notice."_

"No problem. We're going to do this, Dean, I promise."

"_I know that, Brie. I know that for sure."_

She put her phone back into her pocket after he ended the call. Her eyes looked up at the road ahead, and Dean's words had just managed to double her confidence. They _were _going to be successful with this. They had to be.

"Any ideas on how we would actually tell Seth about this if he is already in the room with them?" Paige questioned.

"I'm hoping that an expression will just be enough," Brie replied, her confidence not dropping a single bit.

She and Paige stayed silent for the rest of the car journey to the base. Paige was beginning to worry immensely about this going wrong, but Dean's attitude was apparently contagious and Brie's worry had disappeared almost completely. Her silence was due to her focus and her determination to do whatever it takes to make this plan work.

Paige pulled up by the base and the two of them entered it after Paige typed out the password. Everyone was sat down with the exception of Stephanie and Hunter, who were both standing by the chair Seth had been placed in. Brie took in a sharp breath, but she hoped that a mere look at Seth could make him not say anything, as long as she did it the right way.

They both sat down in the empty seats, and Brie was glad when she realised that not many people could see her in the spot she and Paige had chosen to sit in.

"So, Seth, you've been very quiet this whole time you've been here, haven't you?" Stephanie said, placing her hands on Seth's shoulders. "And I have a feeling that continuing to do what we've been doing isn't really going to help that much."

She walked in front of him and crouched down. He looked down, avoiding her eyes.

"But what if someone else's life was in danger because you're too stupid to not talk?"

Those words made Seth immediately look up at her, a worried expression on his face.

"The thing is, Seth, we are just about to get in contact with your parents," she said, smiling. "If you talk to us, you can go back to them. But, if you don't..."

She pulled out a gun from the pocket of her jacket, and her fingers glided over it slowly.

"Well, you can guess what would happen to them. It's your choice."

Seth stared at the gun in her hands, panicked. He didn't want to put any of Justice's lives in danger – but he couldn't put them before his parents, could he? Brie wouldn't have the chance to let the others know what happened and they wouldn't be ready to be attacked, but he couldn't just let his parents die. He might have been unhappy in his normal life, but he didn't want anything like that to happen. He breathed in deeply, and at that moment, his eyes caught Brie sitting next to Paige. She was looking at him with a desperate expression, and she glanced around the room before she mouthed the words '_Don't do it.'_

It could have just been because she was worried about the Justice members, but he had a feeling that she had something planned. She and Paige must have been in contact with the others, so _did_ they have some sort of plan?

Even though he didn't know for sure, it was enough for him to make up his mind about what he was going to say.

"You seem convinced I know _something _and yet did it ever cross your mind that I might not actually have where they are memorised?"

It was the longest sentence he had managed to say since he had been in the Authority's hands, to someone who wasn't Brie or Paige, anyway, and he was quite surprised at his sudden burst of confidence. Stephanie merely laughed.

"Oh, I _know _that you have it memorised. It doesn't matter though – I'm pretty sure you won't be so confident when your parents are at gunpoint."

She took out her phone and grinned at Seth before she dialled in the numbers.

"Is that Mrs Rollins? Ah, yes, I thought so."

Seth didn't take his eyes off her as she continued to talk.

"Oh yes, I _do _know where your son is... You can sort of say that we found him."

She got up off the floor and began to pace, her smirk never leaving her face.

"It's not going to be that simple. You don't understand? Well, to put it simply, we're not going to give him back without a price. You're both very successful, aren't you? Good house, good business, a lot of money. I know that it's been going well for you recently so how about... Five-hundred thousand?"

She laughed, shaking her head.

"We can always drop it down to one-hundred thousand if that's more convenient... But I'm afraid that I can't guarantee that he would be in one piece... Oh, I'm glad that you've decided on the best option. But if you even dare to contact the police, he's immediately dead, so don't try it. I will message you the location. It may take a while to drive down here, but I'm sure you're willing to do that. I would leave right now, if I were you. See you later."

Her eyes fell back on Seth, and her smirk grew.

"You'll get to see your parents soon, though they won't be alive unless you talk. But, I guess we'll see how that turns out when they get here."

"Where are we meeting them?" asked Hunter.

"Near Ambrose's old apartment," said Stephanie as she sent a message to Seth's mother. "Hardly anyone lives there anymore. It's quiet."

Paige turned to Brie, who was quickly typing out a message to Dean. She sighed in relief, thankful that this seemed to be going on track.

* * *

><p>Roman had joined them again after Dean's phone call, and seemed quite impressed with the plan that they had made while he was gone. Soon after he was told everything, Dean had received a message from Brie.<p>

"_Steph has told his parents to meet them near your old apartment,_"he read out loud. _"I'd contact them now before they leave."_

"How did she manage to tell Seth about this?" AJ wondered aloud.

"I don't even care about that right now; I'm just glad she did," Dean replied, going into his contacts. He pressed the number and put the call on speaker.

"_I'm sorry, but I haven't got the time for-"_

"Wait, is that Mrs Rollins?" Dean asked hurriedly.

"_Yes, who is this? I'm in a hurry..."_

"I know why, and you can't go."

"_I don't understand?"_

"They plan on taking the money and killing you so they can use Seth for... Something. You can't go, it's too dangerous."

"_How do you know this? Who are you?"_

"All you need to know is that we're going to save him, and you can't come here. You'd get killed. We're going to meet them by surprise and take him ba-"

He stopped, realising that wasn't a good thing to say.

"... And help him. You have to trust us."

"_How can we trust you when we don't even know who you are?"_

"You just have to. Both you and your son's lives depends on it."

"_Alright... But please call me as soon as you can."_

"I will, I promise," said Dean, before he ended the call. "That went better than I expected."

"The poor woman is probably extremely worried at the moment," AJ sighed. "She has no idea what's going on."

"It'll all be alright after this," said Roman. "When should we leave?"

"Now," Dean replied, getting out of his seat. "They won't all be coming, at least, they shouldn't be. We'll stay hidden until the right moment."

* * *

><p>Stephanie leant against a wall, her arms folded. She was getting impatient, even though Seth's parents <em>did <em>have a long way to travel. Brie and Paige were stood at the side, Lesnar was standing by Orton, Wyatt was crouched by the wall and Hunter stood with his gun facing Seth, whose hands were finally untied but he didn't dare move with the gun able to shoot right through him at any moment.

"Well, this is getting boring," Stephanie yawned. "I don't want to be stood here all night."

"You won't have to be," Hunter sighed. "They'll be here soon enough."

"They better be, because I-"

She gasped loudly, and Hunter turned around to face her.

"What's wrong?" he asked, and his question was answered when he looked down and saw the blood seeping through her shirt. She collapsed onto the floor, and Hunter immediately crouched by her side. Seth stayed still, however, his eyes staring at Stephanie in shock. Suddenly, Hunter jumped up and tightly wrapped his arm around Seth's neck, his gun pointing at his head. Bray quickly took off his jacket and wrapped it around Stephanie's waist.

"Come out, you fucking bastard!" he shouted out into the silence. "I will put a bullet right through your little boyfriend's head if you don't show yourself!"

"Alright, alright, just relax," Dean's voice called, and he came out from behind one of the buildings. "You have to admit that was a good shot, though."

"How did you even know about this?" Hunter hissed. "Where are the others?"

Other Justice members then walked over to Dean's side, all of their guns raised.

"It looks like you're outnumbered," Roman chuckled. His eyes fell on Brie for a moment, who, unnoticed by the others, was stepping to the side of the building behind her as she slowly pulled her gun out of her pocket.

"Lower your weapons otherwise I _will _shoot him."

None of them, with the exception of Roman, were expecting a gun to then be fired and for the bullet to shoot right through Hunter's head. Seth stumbled forward when the man fell to the ground. Stephanie stared at him in horror.

"_NO!" _she screamed, wincing as she moved away from Bray and lifted her husband's head with her hands. "How could you do this?"

"After all of the pain you've put people through, it's what you both deserved," said Dean.

"Dean, Seth!" Roman shouted frantically, pointing at Orton roughly dragging him around the corner.

"Take care of the rest for me."

He quickly ran past the Authority members, all of whom were still staring at Hunter's dead form in horror. Meanwhile, Orton had pushed a struggling Seth against his car, and used his spare hand to pull out his gun.

"They might see no need for you anymore, but I do," he hissed. "There is no use struggling, because you know that I am stronger than you and I have this. Don't even think that-"

He gasped when the gun was shot out of his hand, and he glared at Dean who was pointing his gun at Orton's head.

"Get away from him."

"I can admit defeat to this," Orton sighed, and raised both of his hands in the air. "But I won't admit it without doing it _my _way."

Before Dean could react, Orton had swiftly taken a knife out of his pocket, pulled Seth in front of him and plunged the knife straight through him, just under his chest.

"_SETH!" _Dean screamed, rushing over to them. Orton didn't even bother trying to dodge the bullet which was planted into his chest.

Seth was on the floor, blood pouring out of his body at an alarming rate. Dean fell to the ground besides him and pulled Seth close to him.

"_BRIE_, _HELP! _Come on Seth, it'll be alright, it'll be alright..."

Seth's eyes blinked up at him slowly, and he opened his mouth as though he was going to speak, but no words came out.

"You're going to be alright, Seth..."

He turned his head around when he heard footsteps from behind him.

"Oh God, oh God..." Brie said, covering her mouth when she saw the blood seeping through Seth's shirt.

"You have to drive us to the hospital, you have to," Dean said, brushing Seth's hair back from his sweaty forehead.

"What with? We didn't drive here!"

"Use Orton's car," he said. She nodded and quickly rushed over to Orton to grab the keys out of his pocket. Dean picked up Seth in his arms while Brie unlocked the car, the motion reminding him of that night in Roman's house where he had sworn to protect Seth and promised that he wouldn't be harmed again.

He did a great job keeping that promise, didn't he?

"I'm so sorry Seth, I'm so sorry..." he whispered. He placed Seth down onto the backseat and sat down beside him. Seth's head was moved onto Dean's lap, and he barely managed to keep his eyes open to look up into Dean's.

Dean kept gently stroking Seth's hair, and when his other hand moved up to his own hair to brush it back, he noticed that his face was stained with tears.

"You'll be okay; you have to be okay..."

"D-Dean... I-I..." Seth whimpered, breathing heavily. "I-I don't... T-Think... I w-will..."

"No, don't say that. You _will _be. You can't give up now."

"B-But I-"

"No, you haven't gone through all this for you to die now. You'll be fine, just don't give up. You _have _to stay."

Seth smiled at him shakily, though he couldn't find the strength to say anything. Dean gently lifted up Seth's shirt, shrugged off his jacket and pressed it as softly as he could against the wound, whispering sorry when Seth flinched. He just _had _to try and stop the bleeding as much as possible – the drive to the hospital was long, far too long for someone who had just had a knife plunged straight into their body.

All Dean could do was keep the jacket held against Seth's skin and continue to mumble encouraging words to him. He was surprised that Seth was somehow still awake – but also glad. If Seth was awake Dean wouldn't mistake his unconsciousness for death.

"Brie, how long is there to go?" he asked quietly.

"Too long for my liking," she sighed. "I'm trying to get there as fast as I can, I honestly am. But the area we live in isn't really one for medical help."

"Well, obviously," Dean snapped, though he immediately felt guilty. "I'm sorry, Brie, I didn't mean it. I'm just..."

"I know, it's fine," she said. "You're bound to be worried. Is he still awake?"

"Yeah, but just barely," Dean replied, gently cupping Seth's cheek in his hand. He was startled when his phone starting ringing, and hesitated lifting his hand to answer it. "Hello?"

"_Dean, thank God you answered,_" said Roman. _"Where are you? Is Seth with you? What about Brie? I can't find her."_

"They're both with me... Brie is driving us to the hospital."

"_The hospital?" _Roman echoed, sounding worried. _"What happened? Are you alright?"_

"I am, but Seth..." Dean stopped when he looked down at Seth's pale face.

"_What about Seth? Is he hurt?"_

"Very... Orton stabbed him."

"_He did? Fuck, I'm so sorry. I was wondering where you had gone when I saw him on the ground. How is he holding up?"_

"He... He could be better. But he's awake."

"_We will make our way there as soon as we can, alright? Just try to keep him awake until you get to the hospital. He- AH, Vickie! Sorry, she pressed down a bit too hard."_

"Wait, are you okay?" Dean frowned.

"_Lesnar hit my shoulder, but it's not deep at all, don't worry. He's definitely in a worse state than I am."_

"How is everyone else?"

"_All okay. I can say with confidence that the Authority shouldn't be much of a problem anymore – not with the top people gone."_

"That's great news," said Dean, his eyes landing back on Seth. "Is it alright if I hang up?"

"_No, of course not. As soon as Vickie's sorted out this shoulder of mine we'll come. See you soon."_

Dean placed the phone back into his pocket and rested his hand back on Seth's face. His eyes closed at the touch and he smiled weakly.

"We'll be there soon," Dean murmured softly. "You'll get help, I promise."

Seth stayed silent but he nodded his head slightly. When he became still a few minutes later Dean panicked, but the clear movement of Seth's chest showed that he had just fallen unconscious. Still, it worried him.

"He's fallen unconscious," he said to Brie, breathing in a sharp intake of breath.

"Don't worry – we're almost there."

Dean had probably never been more relieved in his life when she stopped the car outside of the hospital a few minutes later. He got out of the car and quickly scooped up Seth in his arms, his thoughts yet again going back to the first time he had done so.

"_I'm sure that you don't mind carrying him there, do you?"_

"_Nah, course not. He's lighter than a sixteen-year-old girl."_

"_I'm not that light."_

"_No, you're not. Like I said - you're _lighter."

It was easy to joke back then, but now that Seth was close to death, it was hard to imagine that laughter coming back. Blinking back tears, Dean hurried inside the building, with Brie close behind him.

"I need a doctor!" he shouted, making the staff look over at him in shock. "He's been stabbed – please, you've got to help."

A stretcher was immediately wheeled over to them, and the staff helped Dean place Seth down onto it. He and Brie followed them down a corridor, though they were stopped further down.

"You'll have to wait here, I'm afraid," the nurse said, gesturing to the seats. "You'll be allowed to see him as soon as he's stable."

"But-" Dean protested, but sighed and nodded when Brie placed a hand onto his arm. He didn't join her, however, when she sat down in one of the chairs. Instead, he paced back and forth, his mind thinking of the worst possible scenarios.

"_I am sorry, but we were unable to save him. The wound was just too deep and he lost too much blood. I'm terribly sorry for your loss."_

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. Thinking negatively about this wouldn't help at all. Seth was going to be alright now he was in the hands of professionals. He'd be fine... Right? He had to be.

"Dean, I'm so sorry."

He hadn't even noticed Roman approach him, with AJ close behind him. Dean was pulled into Roman's arms and he couldn't stop the tears from falling. The other three were completely silent for a couple of minutes until Dean pulled away, wiping his eyes.

"I haven't seen you cry in years," Roman chuckled.

"This seems like the perfect opportunity for me to do so," Dean laughed, though it was humourless.

"The others would have come too but we weren't sure if the staff would be okay with it," said AJ. "We don't want too much attention on us."

"Have they questioned you about how this happened yet?" Roman asked.

"No, not yet. I think they will after they've treated him, though."

"What are you going to tell them?"

"I don't even have a clue."

"We'll think of something," AJ said reassuringly. "Shall I get us all some coffee?"

She was back a few minutes later with four beverages, and they sat down as they drank them. It was hardly enough to relax them, however. It was hard to stay calm when they weren't certain if Seth would stay alive. Dean thought his heart would tear in two if after all he had been through, Seth didn't manage to live.

"_Maybe he's gotten a little attached to one of the members... Probably Ambrose."_

"_You think he's falling for Ambrose?"_

"_Just maybe. Are you, huh? Is that why you're not saying anything?"_

"_How can you tell?"_

"_Isn't it obvious? Have you seen how he looks at you as soon as you mention Ambrose's name? Not to mention that he obviously has to have _some _trust to allow Ambrose to drive him home on his own, and not bring Reigns along."_

It seemed stupid for Dean to think over words that Stephanie had said... But what if it was true? What if Seth _had _fell for Dean?

Before, he was confused, he was baffled, and he didn't know what to think. But now... His mind started imagining him and Seth together. There wasn't any doubt about Seth being a kind-hearted person, who was easy to get along with. It wasn't a lie when Dean said that Seth was honestly one of the best guys he had ever met. He _was. _Seth was unlike anyone Dean had ever met. Dean had never taken his relationships completely seriously, but he didn't feel like that with Seth. The more he thought about it, the more _right _it seemed to be.

He just had to hope that he would have the chance to say these words to the one person who needed to hear it the most.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I literally ended up crying a little writing this. I get far too emotionally attached while writing fanfiction. Well, at least he's been saved... Even though he could potentially be dying.

I feel like some of this chapter seems unintentionally rushed, though I hope it was enjoyable anyway.

Speaking of rushed, however, this story won't be going on for much longer. No, I'm not rushing the end. But basically - I blame both my health issues and my constant ideas for new stories - if I make a story long then I begin to lose motivation towards the end and I end up rushing it. I would much rather have a shorter story than one which is either discontinued or rushed. I hope you understand!

I have an idea for another Ambrollins story when this one is over, though. I think it will be good!

Anyway, as usual, thank you for reading. Reviews are always appreciated!


	8. Awakening

**A/N: **Hey guys! I was going to try and get this updated earlier but unfortunately my netbook is currently being fixed and I wasn't writing fanfiction for a few days, until I just decided to use the family laptop. It doesn't have Microsoft Word which means I had no word count or spell check, though I published a document earlier on to check the word count on here (where I saw it was 1,200 words) and I managed to get it to a decent length after that. As for my spelling, hopefully that is fine.

I have more to say but I'll save it for the end. For now, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

* * *

><p>Hostage<p>

Chapter Eight – Awakening

* * *

><p>The four of them continued to sit in silence even after they had finished the beverages AJ had bought for them. Every time they heard a door open, they would look up in hope, but each time it wasn't a doctor or a nurse telling them the news that they wanted to hear – that Seth was going to be okay.<p>

After what seemed to be hours, one of the nurses eventually exited the room Seth had been brought to and walked over to where they were sitting. She glanced at Roman and AJ for a moment before she looked at Dean, who was clearly in a worse state than the others.

"Is he alright?" he asked quietly.

"We've stabilised him..." she started, and hesitated before she continued. "But his body is incredibly weak. The knife wound would be serious for anyone, but he has multiple other injuries which are certainly not helping."

"We know of them," Dean said, breathing in deeply. "But will he recover?"

The pause between Dean and the nurse was a little too long for any of their liking.

"... We hope so. We've done all we can for now – we just have to hope that he is strong enough to pull through this. We are hoping that if he manages to get past tonight, then he'll be able to recover as tonight will be the toughest for him. It's all down to him at the moment."

"Can I see him? Please?" he asked desperately. The nurse nodded and walked over to open the door for them. Dean got out of his seat first and hurried after her while the others trailed behind. He slowed when he walked through the doorway, and he felt an awful pang of guilt when his eyes landed on Seth in the bed.

"Oh, Seth," he murmured, and he rushed over to sit in the chair placed right by the bed. He slowly reached for one of Seth's hand and held it in both of his. The staff exited the room silently, and AJ, Roman and Brie stood by the doorway, none of them wanting to say a word.

Seth's face hadn't gained any more colour since the journey to the hospital, but Dean was grateful that he at least looked much more peaceful. Apart from the bruise around his eye and around his throat, which were still healing, he seemed as though he was just sleeping. It was certainly easier to look at than when he was sweating and shaking uncontrollably in the car.

"Seth, I don't know if you can hear me, but I am so sorry," Dean whispered, brushing Seth's hair away from his face. "If I had any idea that this would have happened, I would have never brought you with us that day in the alley. I failed doing what I had promised to do, and that was to protect you. I need you to pull through this, Seth. For your parents, for your friends... For me. I never thought I would care about someone this much, at least not for someone I haven't known for very long. But I do care for you Seth, a hell of a lot, and I want you- No, I _need _you to recover. You've been so strong during all of this; you can't give up now."

Dean leaned down towards Seth and gently brushed his lips against his forehead. Roman, as much as he didn't want to ruin the moment, started speaking.

"Dean, have you called his parents?"

"Fuck, I haven't," he cursed, sitting up in his chair. "I will now."

He glanced at Seth again before he pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed the number.

"_Hello?"_

"It's me again," said Dean. "I'm so sorry for not calling sooner."

"_Did everything go alright? Is Seth okay?"_

"Well, no, not exactly..."

* * *

><p>Seth's parents had left straight after Dean had told them what had happened to their son, and they had arrived just over an hour after the phone call. AJ, Brie and Roman had stayed with Dean, and he moved over to stand by them to make room for Seth's parents. His eyes closed when he heard the sobs come from Seth's mother. His father rested his hands on his wife's shoulders when she sat down into the chair Dean had previously been sitting in and held onto Seth's hands. The way she looked so desperate to cling on, as though she was scared that if she let go she would lose Seth, brought pain to each of their hearts.<p>

"I hope they catch the monster that did this to him," his father said, a mixture of anger and sadness written on his face.

"They won't be catching him," said Dean. They both looked up, puzzled. "Unless they want to go after someone who is dead."

"I still don't understand who exactly you four are," Seth's mother said, wiping away her tears.

"We're... Enemies, of the people who did this to him, the ones who called you before Dean did," Roman said slowly, trying not to say anything too secretive.

"So your name is Dean?" she asked, looking at Dean, who nodded. "I still don't understand completely, but... Thank you. There's something about you which tells me that you're a good person, and I can see that you care for Seth."

"I do..." said Dean, breathing in deeply. "I care about him a lot."

"Excuse me?" a nurse said, who was standing behind Brie and AJ. All of them turned to her. "The police have been contacted about this attack, and they will be here tomorrow to question you."

"I thought they would be," Dean nodded, still wondering what he was going to tell them.

"Oh dear, it's getting fairly late and we didn't bring enough money for a hotel..." said Mrs Rollins, looking up at the clock on the wall.

"I don't live very far from here so you and your husband are fine to stay at my house so you don't have to travel all the way back to your home," Roman offered.

"Are you sure? We don't want to be a bother," said Mr Rollins.

"It's not a bother at all. It's the least I can do."

"I never got your name," said Mrs Rollins, smiling softly.

"It's Roman," he replied, and turned around to look at the two girls standing behind him. "This is AJ and Brie."

"Thank you all," the woman said. Tears formed in her eyes again when she looked back down at her unconscious son. "I don't want to leave him..."

"We can come straight back here tomorrow," her husband said softly, kissing her cheek. "But you need your sleep."

She sighed, and leaned over to plant a kiss on Seth's forehead before she stood up out of the chair. They both hesitated, before he put his arm around her and followed Roman, Brie and AJ out of the room. Dean found himself unable to move for a moment, though he quickly came to his senses when Roman spoke up.

"Dean, are you coming?"

"Yeah... I am now," he said, glancing at Seth one last time before he walked out of the room and closed it behind him quietly. He was certain that he wasn't going to be getting any sleep that night.

* * *

><p>A small smile grew on Dean's face when he exited the spare room he had been sleeping in and entered the dining room to find Roman serving breakfast for Mr and Mrs Rollins. His theory on not sleeping was right, the most he had done was dozed rather than properly sleeping, but seeing Seth's parents feel so comfortable in the presence of a man they didn't even know helped raise his spirits a little.<p>

"Oh, good morning Dean," Roman greeted when he noticed Dean stood in the doorway. "Want anything?"

"I'm just going to make myself a coffee," said Dean. Roman was a little surprised at Dean's decline for food, but when he saw the man's face, it was quite clear that he wasn't exactly up for eating so early. "I'm guessing that you didn't sleep very well."

"That's an understatement," Dean laughed humourlessly as he turned on the kettle.

"We're heading over to the hospital again soon," said Roman. Dean nodded, and looked over at Seth's parents when he felt their gaze on them.

"Thank you again for letting us stay the night," said Mrs Rollins, smiling. "It was very thoughtful of you."

"We're grateful that you are doing this for us," Mr Rollins added.

"It's not a problem."

"When do you think the police will be there to question us?" Dean asked after he had finished making his coffee, and sipped it slowly as he looked at his best friend.

"I can imagine this afternoon or something. They might try and wait as long as possible so they have a chance of Seth being conscious when they come. It makes sense for them to want to question him, too."

Dean nodded, agreeing with Roman's words. Hearing the truth from Seth would be more believable than hearing it from two very suspicious men, and after how much Seth had lied to the Authority, Dean doubted he would tell the absolute truth. That is, if he actually woke up.

A pang of guilt and sorrow went through Dean at the thought of Seth not _ever _waking up, but he tried to shift his thoughts on what he was going to tell the police. He couldn't tell them the _truth, _obviously. At least, not about Justice. The police wouldn't hesitate to throw Dean, Roman and the rest of the members into prison for admitting that they were the ones who had kidnapped Seth in the first place. Even if they told them the rest, about how Seth soon felt like a part of them and he was then taken by their absolute rivals who Justice had tried to stop over the years, they had _still _committed the crime in the first place.

Part of Dean believed he d_eserved _to be locked away for what he and Brie had agreed on back in that alley. If they hadn't made that decision, none of this would have happened. But, he didn't want other members of Justice going to prison for what only a few of them decided what to do. That was unfair, but it was bound to happen.

He tried feel less guilty about the situation by thinking about the bond that had grown between him and Seth during this time. The younger boy had said himself that he had never felt like a hostage - in fact, after he had been shot in the leg by Kane, he wasn't even a hostage anymore. Dean had planned to take him home, away from the Authority, away from all of this. Though that journey had only caused more problems.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Roman several minutes later and noticed that Seth's parents were now standing up, and all three were looking at him.

"Dean, are you alright?" Roman asked, placing a hand on Dean's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just zoned out for a bit, that's all."

Roman nodded in understanding, and turned to Mr and Mrs Rollins.

"Shall we go?" he asked, and after receiving a yes from both of them, he picked up his car keys from the kitchen worktop and headed out of the house, locking the door once they had all left. The journey to the hospital was silent as the four of them were lost in each of their thoughts.

Dean knew that if Seth had passed away overnight they would have been informed that by the hospital but he was still thinking that it happened, that he was going to arrive at the hospital only to be told the heartbreaking news. He was filled with a completely unexpected joy, however, when they arrived to find quite the opposite.

Though he was clearly very weak and his eyes were only just about open, he was still awake. Dean felt his heart beat faster when he saw Seth slowly turn his head at his visitors.

"D-Dean..." he smiled softly when he saw the man standing in the doorway. His eyes moved to look at the others standing behind him. "Mom... Dad? W-What are you doing here?"

"Dean told us what happened and we had to come and see you," his mother said, rushing over to the bed. "I'm so glad to see you're awake, Seth."

"We all are," his father smiled, walking over to stand by his wife. Dean was utterly stunned and was frozen to the spot until Roman urged him to go forward.

"How you feeling?" Dean asked softly.

"It hurt more than my leg did," Seth replied, and winced when he chuckled. His voice was very quiet and it was easy to hear how weak he was, but Dean just saw Seth being awake as a miracle. He glanced at the chair placed by the bed, and then at Seth's mother to make sure that she wasn't going to sit in it herself. She smiled at him to show that she didn't mind, and sat down with her husband in a chair further away from the bed. Dean sat down in the one next to Seth and reached out for his hand. Seth smiled at the gentle touch, though his eyes moved away from Dean when a nurse stood in the doorway.

"It was a surprise to us when he started waking up," she said. "We weren't even too sure if he was going to make it... You definitely are one tough kid."

"When are the police arriving here?" asked Roman, turning to face her.

"They will be on their way soon, now that Seth is awake," she replied.

"Wait, police?" said Seth.

"Of course," said his father. "You were being held for ransom Seth, and they also hurt you. They had to be contacted."

Seth nodded slowly. With all that had been going on in these last few days, he had completely forgotten about the police possibly getting involved.

"We've been so worried about you," said Mrs Rollins, smiling sadly. "We had no idea where you were or what happened. We've missed you, Seth."

"I... I've missed you too," he replied, feeling guilty as he remembered the conversation he had had with Dean where he told him he _didn't _miss the people in his old life.

His mother yawned loudly, and his father chuckled besides her.

"You sound exhausted. Why don't we go and buy you a coffee?"

"Oh, but we can't leave Seth so soon..."

"It's alright," Seth reassured her. "It won't take you that long to get a coffee."

"Well, okay then... But we will come straight back!"

His parents exited the room and Roman stood there awkwardly, trying to think of an excuse to leave the room himself.

"I'm going to go and, uh..." he hesitated. "Admire the... Uh... Go to the bathroom."

Dean laughed as Roman ran out of the room, and shook his head at Seth.

"He was always such a bad liar in these kind of situations."

"Why did he even want to leave the room so badly?"

"Because he knows that I want it to just be you and me."

"...Oh."

Despite his face still being pale from the damage on his body, a blush still managed to form on his cheeks and Dean couldn't help but smirk. He got out of the chair and sat on Seth's bed, not breaking eye contact.

"What is it?"

"Even with a knife wound in your stomach you still manage to be so fucking adorable."

Seth's blush deepened and he looked down on the bed sheets, a smile on his face. His eyes looked up when Dean's hand cupped his cheek, and he started to breathe a little heavier when he looked into Dean's icy blue eyes.

"I never got the chance to tell you how much you mean to me, so I'm going to say it now," he said softly. "Seth, you mean a hell of a lot to me. We haven't even known each other for that long, but... I just can't imagine you not being in my life as you're probably one of the best people to come into it. When Orton attacked you, it felt like my whole world has just stopped. I haven't cried in years but thinking you could die made those tears fall. I thought I was going to lose you and the fear I felt from that made me realise just how much I care about you. And, as sappy as it may sound... Be with you."

Seth's heart thumped loudly in his chest as his mind processed what Dean had just said to him. Before he could even try to think of what to respond with, Dean's lips were on his. His brown eyes widened before they fluttered closed as he kissed back. The kiss was small and delicate; the complete opposite to what he had experienced with Orton. Dean pulled back softly, the smirk returning to his face when he saw how red Seth's face was.

"I find it incredible how you seem to feel the same way despite all you've been through, because of me."

"It wasn't because of you," Seth said quickly. "You never planned for any of that to happen. I don't blame you and you shouldn't blame yourself."

"So you don't deny feeling the same?"

Dean chuckled when Seth smiled and his eyes looked back down at the bed sheets. It was such a cute sight that Dean couldn't resist moving his hand under Seth's chin to lift his face up and leant in for another kiss. Seth didn't hesitate to return the kiss this time and slid down the bed a little to move his stomach away from Dean, resulting in the taller man hovering over him. Dean pulled away for a moment, grinning.

"This is even better than I imagined it to be."

He closed the gap in between them once more, and the kiss this time was deeper after Dean's words. It didn't last long, however, before they were interrupted.

"I don't mean to interrupt anything..."

Dean raised his head from Seth and both pairs of eyes glanced over at Roman standing in the doorway, a satisfied grin on his face. Dean looked like he only found the situation amusing while Seth just wanted to hide under the bed sheets and never have to look at Roman again.

"...But a nurse just told me out there that the police are going to arrive here any minute. I don't really think they'd want to find you on top of a guy with a knife wound making out."

"I'm not even touching his stomach - he slid down so that I wasn't," Dean laughed, though he moved so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed. "I wonder what Seth's parents would have said if _they _had been the ones to walk in on us both."

"Oh God," Seth said, his voice muffled by his hands covering his face. "Don't give me that image."

"Do they know that you're gay?" Roman asked as he sat down in one of the chairs.

"Well, yes, but it's another thing completely to be caught kissing another guy they don't even know."

"It seemed like it was going to be a bit more than 'kissing' from the way Dean was on top of you and was pinning one of your wrists to the bed."

"I have said already that he slid down the bed because of his stomach," Dean laughed.

"And you just couldn't help but pin the hand which wasn't holding his stomach to the bed."

"I was already holding his hand so I guess I-"

"Just wanted to pin him to the bed?"

"Shut up," Dean laughed again, reaching over to shove Roman slightly. Seth's face was pure red from embarrassment.

"But it's going to be hard for you guys to be together, you know," Roman said seriously. "Seth's parents are going to obviously expect him to go back when he is able to, and even though the Authority are probably not a problem anymore it's still going to be difficult."

"We'll find a way, Rome," he said, looking at Seth. "That is... If you want to. Be my boyfriend, I mean."

"I..." Seth paused, his mind going over his own feelings he had developed for Dean recently. It didn't seem sensible to be with someone who lived in a rough area and was in a gang, though that gang would probably split now the Authority barely had anyone left. "I'd love to."

Dean's grin grew and he raised Seth's hand to plant a kiss on the skin.

"I'm very glad."

They jumped slightly at a knock on the door, and turned to find a man and a woman dressed in a police uniform standing there.

"We've come to ask a few questions," the woman said. "I am Renee Young, and this is my partner, Tom Phillips."

Dean and Roman glanced at each other for a split second before Dean smiled at them politely.

"Ask any questions you need."

"We first have a few for Seth," said Phillips, looking at the teenager in the bed. "What happened the night that you were taken?"

"Well, I..." Seth paused for a moment. "I was going out for a walk, to clear my head. I ended up walking too far and I got lost. I saw a girl and a guy nearby and I went to ask them for directions, though I ended up overhearing some crime they were planning and they took me as a hostage as they saw my phone and guessed I come from a rich family."

"Are they the same one who called your parents?" asked the woman after a pause to allow Phillips to write down some notes.

"Yes, they were. They left it for a while as they thought my parents would pay them more if I had been gone longer."

Both Roman and Dean were slightly surprised at Seth's quick response, though they didn't let this show.

"But what about your other injuries?"

"One of the men there seemed to find a thrill in hitting me. The bruises on my neck happened while another..." Seth breathed in deeply. "While another raped me."

Dean's fists clenched with those words, though he unclenched one soon after to hold Seth's hand again comfortingly. Even though he already knew what Orton had done to Seth, hearing him actually say those words made Dean want to kill Orton all over again.

Young and Phillips both smiled in sympathy before the woman continued.

"What about the trouble with your lungs?"

"They almost drowned me. They seemed to find it fun to mess around with me while I was there."

The woman nodded before turning to Dean.

"How did you know about what happened with Seth?"

Seth looked at Dean, questioning what he was going to say, though he luckily had had enough time to think of his answers.

"Me, Roman - the man in here," he started, gesturing at Roman. "Have known the gang who took Seth for years. We watched them form themselves slowly. They started out with smaller crimes, the sort which didn't really hurt anyone, but then they grew. As we live in an area without any officials and where crime is definitely not uncommon, we wanted to stop them. A woman on our side switched places with her twin sister, who had joined them but hated it, and spied on them for us. We found out about Seth, contacted his parents straight after they did, and confronted them."

"That was extremely brave of her," the man commented. Dean was relieved that they were believing what he was saying - though he was only twisting the truth.

"What happened to the gang?"

"We injured them, and we don't think that they'd be able to carry on after this," he said, not quite wanting to say that they had killed every member who was there except from Bray Wyatt, who escaped.

The woman nodded, and she peered over at the notes her partner had made.

"Thank you for your answers. If we require anything else from you, will shall contact you."

"Of course," Dean nodded, and relaxed a little when she and her partner made their leave.

"You two are brilliant," Roman grinned. The three of them looked up when Seth's parents then entered the room, both glancing over their shoulders.

"Were they the police that had come to question you?" his father asked.

"Yeah, they were," Seth replied.

"I have a few unanswered questions myself," said his mother, chuckling. "But I'm just glad that you're safe, Seth. The doctors say that you're healing well, too."

"You're certainly looking better than when we first arrived," Dean commented, looking at the colour slowly returning to Seth's face. "I swear to God, you're proof that miracles exist."

Seth's parents glanced down at Dean holding Seth's hand.

"Still holding his hand?" Mrs Rollins grinned.

"N-Not still..." Seth mumbled, the blush forming once again on his cheeks. Dean smirked at how cute Seth looked, _again. _Well, he was always cute, but his high tendency to blush made him even cuter. Dean reached his other hand out to them to shake.

"I don't believe I've introduced myself properly. My name is Dean Ambrose. Your son said yes to being my boyfriend about twenty minutes ago."

"D-Dean!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dean," Mr Rollins laughed, shaking the man's hand. Mrs Rollins did the same.

"Boyfriend, huh?" she said, winking at Seth. "You've been awfully down since Sami. It's like you have a whole new spark of life, now. I may not have known you for long or even very well, Dean, but I can tell that you're good for our son."

"We're also sorry, Seth," Mr Rollins said, making Seth look at him questioningly. "Even if it wasn't how we were supposed to come across before, it must have seemed that we only cared about the grades you got in school and you doing well, rather than your happiness."

"I know that's not what you meant."

"But it must have seemed like it at times," said Mrs Rollins. "We do care about that but we care about your feelings so much more. You being away from us made us realise how much we took such a wonderful and perfect son for granted. We're sorry, Seth."

"It's alright," Seth said quietly, though he was touched by his parents words. He _had _always thought that they cared more about what he was going to achieve than he himself, but now he could see that it wasn't like that. His parents and Dean then starting joking around with each other, and it brought him so much happiness. Maybe it could work out with him after all.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **How many of you expected me to actually write a nice chapter for once?

So the first thing I need to say is that I think this story will only have a couple of more chapters. There was so many things I could do from here, but the one which probably would have been best would have also made this story much longer. I didn't want to use an idea which would make the story so long that I start to lose motivation and end up rushing the end. I would much rather have a shorter story with a better ending. I hope you all understand.

I'll be starting another Ambrollins story straight after this one is finished anyway as I have an idea for it which I think will work out well.

The second thing isn't really something I _need _to say but will mention anyway. I've been speaking with a girl since August and we have been together since the 11th of September. She lives 3-4 hours away from me, in South Wales, and I am finally meeting her! The main problem I had before was my parents not wanting me to get the train by myself, which is understandable. But I then came up with the idea of my mum paying for my train fare instead of my main Christmas present and for me to go down at the same time my brother would be seeing his boyfriend! We've planned it perfectly and I will be leaving on the 27th and be staying there for four nights! I'm so happy.

I'm going to try and get this finished before I go cx

Anyway, I apologise for the length of this author's note. Please feel free to leave your thoughts, and thank you for reading!


	9. Happiness

**A/N: **Hello guys! I'm actually very proud of myself for managing to get both chapters for each story done before I go away tomorrow.

Yes, this is the last chapter. But I think you're going to love my next story. Hopefully it will be longer than this one.

There will, of course, be another author's note at the end. Enjoy reading!

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><p>Hostage<p>

Chapter Nine: Happiness

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><p>The next few weeks were actually enjoyable. Dean visited the hospital every day with Roman, who let Seth's parents stay with him whenever they came back, as they naturally had to go home for work and also for Seth's siblings. They were a little older than Seth, but his parents still didn't want to leave them on their own for weeks. They still came back to visit when they were able to, and often brought small gifts for him.<p>

Several other members of Justice also came to visit Seth, even the people he hadn't really spoken too. They all said how they admired Seth's bravery through what had happened, and the praise from them made him feel like he was a part of the family.

He also had two people visiting him who he didn't quite expect, and hadn't actually thought about a huge lot during all that had happened, though a large smile grew on his face when he saw them standing in the doorway.

"Corey, Bayley?"

"We're sorry we couldn't get here sooner, Seth!" said Bayley, rushing over to the bed. "We've not been able to get here, it's just been so hectic."

"We've missed you," said Corey, walking over to her side.

"None of us had any idea what had happened and we were so scared! Thank God you're alright!"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Well... Sort of," he laughed, gesturing to his stomach.

"You're one tough mother-fucker," Corey chuckled. He folded his arms when he noticed that Seth's hand was being held by the man sitting in the chair next to the bed. "And who's this?"

"Um... This is my..."

"Boyfriend," Dean finished for him. He reached out his spare hand to Corey. "The name's Dean Ambrose."

"Corey Graves," Seth's friend smiled, and then gestured to Bayley. "This is Bayley."

"It's nice to meet you," she said. "How exactly did you guys meet?"

"That's actually a good point. I thought you were being held hostage. Did this guy save you or something?"

"Well... He did," Seth laughed, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "But it's fairly complicated."

He looked over at Roman still sitting in one of the chairs and decided to quickly change the subject.

"That guy over there is Roman Reigns," he said.

Roman jumped at the sound of his name, clearly not expecting him to be mentioned, but grinned at Corey and Bayley.

"It's nice to see you both."

"I'm still not entirely sure of everything that has happened here," Bayley laughed.

"Yeah, you probably wouldn't even believe me if I told you everything..."

"So what do you do, Dean?" Corey asked. "You seem older than us."

"Only by a couple of years," he chuckled. "I'm nineteen. I'm guessing that you're both the same age as Seth?"

"Yeah, we're in the same grade," said Bayley. "We're only different by a few months. Corey's the oldest and I'm the youngest."

"Except that Seth looks pretty young, doesn't he?" Corey grinned as he ruffled Seth's hair. "I bet you thought that he was younger than seventeen, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I thought he was sixteen, at the most," Dean chuckled. "But I find it adorable."

"Awh, look at Seth, he's blushing!" Bayley laughed, winking at Seth when he ooked at her.

"Shut up, Bayley!" he exclaimed, but he was still smiling.

"We really have missed you though, Seth," Corey said in a serious tone. "It hasn't been the same without you."

"We can't wait until you get back," Bayley added. "We really need to spend that weekend together that we didn't manage to have!"

"Yeah... We definitely do," Seth agreed, realising just how much his friends actually meant to him.

They stayed for as long as they could, but eventually had to leave so they wouldn't get home too late. Roman had offered for them to stay at his house with him and Dean so they didn't have to travel, but they declined, saying that they both had classes they didn't want to miss at school the next day. It was fairly sad to see them leave, but Seth knew that he'd be seeing them again soon.

"We might want to leave here ourselves soon, Dean," said Roman a few minutes after Bayley and Corey left. "I didn't bring enough money for food."

"Yeah, that's fine."

"I've got enough for a coffee for both of us, though. Do you want one?"

Dean shook his head.

"Nah, I'm fine."

"Alright. I'll be back in a minute."

Both of them watched as Roman left the room, and were silent until Dean spoke up.

"Corey and Bayley seemed like really nice people," he said. "I bet it was nice to see them, wasn't it?"

"It was," Seth nodded. "I'm looking forward to seeing them again, even if it's school."

"Oh yeah, school..." Dean hesitated. "The offer still stands, you know. About you staying here with me."

"It seems like a really nice thought, but..."

"But what?"

"I just don't want to leave my family behind. After all that's happened, I realised how much more I need appreciate them. I don't want to leave Corey and Bayley either. I have school to finish as well and it's just... I can't stay here, Dean."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, it's fine," Seth smiled reassuringly. "But we'll still be able to see each other once I'm back. It's only around an hour away, after all."

"Yeah, I know. I just want to spend more time with you... Outside of the hospital, at least," Dean chuckled.

"We'll be able to," said Seth. "Even if you hadn't asked me to be your boyfriend, I still would have wanted to see you after I go back."

"You do realise that as soon as you're better and you've gone home I'm taking you on a date, right?"

"Oh, you don't have to," Seth said hurriedly. "I don't want you to spend money on me."

"What else am I going to spend money on? I have quite a bit saved up, you know. More than you probably realise. That old apartment didn't really show that, but I do. I have more than enough than how much I need to take you on a date."

"Well, if you really want to..."

"Of course I do," said Dean, grinning at the slight blush forming on Seth's cheeks. "I can tell that you like the idea as well."

Seth nodded, smiling. Their eyes were locked for a moment before Dean cupped Seth's cheek and leant in for a kiss. It was sweet and gentle - the kind that made Seth's heart melt and make him incredibly grateful for what he had.

When they seperated they both looked over at the doorway to see Roman standing there with a coffee in his hand and a grin on his face.

"I'm starting to lose count of how many times I've walked in on you two kissing these last few weeks," said Roman. "A doctor just talked to me out there."

"Oh, what did he say?" asked Seth.

"He said that you'll be alright to leave here by the end of this week as long as you're careful with your stomach," he smiled. "He said you just have to avoid any contact to it, and also avoid lifting anything heavy which could strain your body."

"Wow..."

Seth couldn't say much more. It was weird to know that he would be away from all of these people so soon. He would still be seeing Dean, but the rest... He was going to miss them.

"Be sure to come and see us, alright?" Roman chuckled. "We might not be a gang anymore but we still are going to be seeing each other. Make sure that you meet up with us at some point."

"I will," Seth nodded.

"Looks like we'll be having our date sooner than you thought. I will be ringing you every night, thought I'd let you know," Dean chuckled. "Oh yeah, that reminds me..."

He pulled out a phone from his pocket and handed it to Seth.

"It's the one that Brie took from you. Don't worry about all of the missed calls and texts you would have had - she marked them all as read after she charged it," he chuckled.

"Oh, I completely forgot about this," Seth laughed as he took the phone.

"So did we, in all honestly."

"It's kind of understandable," said Roman. He looked at Dean and gestured to the doorway. "Come on, we better get going now."

"Yeah, we should," said Dean, a little relunctantly. He leant down to Seth to plant a kiss on his lips and grinned. "We'll be back tomorrow."

"I know that," Seth chuckled. "See you."

He sighed once they left, and his head fell back against the pillow. A mixture of feelings went through him about how he was leaving the hospital so soon. Part of him was happy to go back - he was a lot happier now than he had been before and was actually looking forward to seeing people in his old life. But he felt so connected with the people in this small 'new' life that it was so weird to think he wouldn't be seeing them anymore, at least not as often.

But like he said to Dean, he couldn't stay. He had schoolwork to try to catch up on, he had friends, he had family. It would be selfish to throw all that away.

* * *

><p>The next several days went by far too quickly, and after being checked over by the medical staff, he was alright to go. As long as he kept with the warnings Roman told him about earlier that week, he would be fine. His parents came into the room while he was packing the few things he had with him in the hospital, and the happiness he saw on their faces rose his spirits a little.<p>

"I'm so glad that you're finally coming home," his mother said, tears brimming in her eyes. Seth smiled and wrapped his arms around her.

"Are you ready to go?" his father asked, and he nodded. He went to pick up the rucksack which Roman had given to him for his things, but Dean picked it up and slung it over his shoulder.

"There's no need for you to carry things unless it's something light."

"But it really isn't that heavy..." Seth protested, but Dean shrugged.

"I want to walk with you to the car anyway," he said, before turning to Roman. "Are you coming?"

"Of course," he nodded.

The walk out of the hospital was silent. Dean had wrapped an arm around Seth's shoulders, and the smaller boy didn't hesistate to lean against him. He wanted to make the most of being so close to Dean as he wasn't very sure how often he'd be able to see him. However, they had soon made it outside, and Seth sighed deeply when he looked over at the car. He wished now that his belongings which were at Roman's house weren't already in there, just so he could stay with Dean for longer.

Dean placed the bag in the boot of the car and turned to Seth, grinning.

"Shall we head off, then?"

"Wait... What?" Seth questioned, puzzled. He looked over at his parents, who were both smiling knowingly, and then at Roman, who looked as though he was trying to stifle a laugh. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Seth," Dean started, wrapping his arm back around Seth's shoulders. "I spoke with your parents about how you seemed upset about leaving me. So, I went down there with them, and managed to get myself a pretty nice apartment not far from your house. I've got myself a job interview, too."

"You're..." Seth breathed in deeply. "You're moving there?"

"Well, considering I already moved my stuff there earlier, it's a bit inconvienient for me to not go now. Though if you don't-"

He was interuppted by Seth, who turned around and wrapped his arms around Dean's neck and buried his head into his chest. Dean laughed and put his arms around Seth's waist to pull him closer.

"You're seriously going to be that close?" he mumbled.

"I am," Dean smiled, and one hand rose up from Seth's waist to stroke his hair.

"But what about Roman?" he asked, pulling away from Dean softly so he could look at Roman.

"Eh, I'll be fine. It's nice to get rid of him," he laughed, but then looked at Dean seriously. "I am going to miss you, but it's time we've moved on from our past here. You deserve a fresh start."

Dean grinned and walked over to give him a hug.

"I'll miss you too."

"Come back as much as possible, alright? I _will _be ringing you often too. Don't be surprised if I end up ringing you at one in the morning just to ask what the weather is like."

"I would be disappointed if you didn't," Dean chuckled.

"As for you, Seth," said Roman, looking at Seth. "I'm proud of you for being strong through all of this. You have so much spirit. I'm glad that Dean fell for you and I know that you'll make him happy."

He reached out a hand for Seth to take, but happily laughed and hugged Seth back when he threw his arms around him.

"You be sure to come with Dean sometime, alright?" Roman asked once they parted.

"Of course," Seth smiled.

"We should get going now," said Mr Rollins, reaching out a hand to Roman. "It was a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for being there for our son."

"It's not a problem," Roman smiled, shaking the offered hand. He watched the four of them enter the car and he did feel a little upset as they drove away, but he knew that it was the best thing for both Dean and Seth.

* * *

><p>It was one of the strangest feeling for Seth to be back in his hometown. As much as he wanted to see Dean's new apartment and was immensely glad that he had rented it, he had declined as he wanted to go home, mainly to see his siblings. Dean naturally understood, and there was plenty of time for Seth to visit Dean's apartment now that they were living so close.<p>

His parents had told him that he didn't have to go to school the following day considering he had only just returned, but he went nonetheless. Despite knowing that he had a lot to catch up on, he just wanted to try and get back into his old, normal routine. He also wanted to spend more time with Bayley and Corey, and he realised how much he now appreciated the simple moments he was with them, like sitting together at lunch.

A lot of the other students looked shocked to see him, but he did actually have a few tell him that they were glad to see that he was alright, which was a nice surprise. A surprise which wasn't so nice, however, was Sami running up behind him at the end of that day.

"Seth, wait!"

Seth sighed and turned around slowly, looking up slightly at Sami.

"What is it?"

"When I heard about you going missing I was so worried," he said hurriedly, knowing that Seth's patience was drawing thin. "I didn't want my last words to you be what I had said that night. I just... Will you give me another chance? Nobody has to know, we can keep it a secret, like we did before. It can just stay between-"

"Nothing is staying between us," Seth interuppted. He sighed again and folded his arms. "Look, Sami, I don't want anything to do with you anymore. It's not the fact that you broke up with me - even though I didn't appreciate it over text. It was the fact that you became such good buddies with the very people that have bullied me a lot through my time in high school and mocked me for my sexuality. Do they even know that you're bisexual? Probably not. I'm going to give you some advice by saying that you should find yourself some friends who will actually like you for who you are, but I'm not getting back with you."

His eyes glanced over at the school gates, and a smile grew on his face when he saw Dean standing there. A lot of girls were giggling and staring up at him as they walked by, but his eyes didn't flicker away from Seth.

"I have someone better in my life now, Sami."

Sami's looked over at Dean, and turned back to Seth with an eyebrow raised.

"That guy in the leather jacket? How did you meet him?"

"I don't think it's any of your business how I met him. If you'd excuse me, I'm going to go to the one person who has brought me more happiness than you have."

He began to walk away, but turned back around when Sami grabbed his arm.

"Seth, I'm sorry. I know you don't want me back but at least accept my apology."

"Maybe I will be able to someday, but I honestly can't right now."

He pulled his arm away from Sami's grasp and walked away without another word. Dean was looking down at Seth when he approached him.

"Who is that guy?" he asked as he put his arm around Seth's shoulders.

"Sami," said Seth. "He wanted both my forgiveness and for me to take him back."

"Did you consider it?"

"Of course not. Why would I even think about being with him again when I can be with you?" Seth smiled.

"Hey, um..."

They both turned to see a tall blonde girl standing in front of her two friends.

"I was just wondering if you maybe wanted to go for a coffee or something?" she asked, and placed a hand on her hip. She was obviously very confident, but Dean just smirked.

"Sorry, but I have someone right here," he said, pulling Seth slightly closer to him.

"Wait, so you're actually gay?" the blonde said, looking at Seth with apparent surprise. "I thought they just said that."

"You don't really look gay," said the girl's small and brunette friend, looking up at Dean.

"I'm not; I'm pansexual," Dean shrugged. "But all you need to know is that I'm not interested since I have who I want right here. Come on, Seth."

Seth had to stifle a laugh at the look of disappointment on the blonde's face and walked away with Dean to his car. He got into the passenger seat and looked at Dean questioningly.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Well, I did promise you a date, didn't I?" said Dean as he started the engine. "We've got to go back to my place first, though. I don't think these jeans would be acceptable."

"What sort of place are we going where even Dean Ambrose chooses not to wear his favourite scruffy pair of Jeans?" Seth chuckled.

"That would spoil the surprise now, wouldn't it? I've already told your parents, don't worry. We don't want them thinking you've gone missing again."

"I hope you're not going to spend too much money on me or anything..."

"Seth, it's completely fine. Seriously, I have enough money to take you somewhere nice. I _want _to treat you."

Seth nodded and smiled at Dean softly. Sami had never been like this. He was too scared of being seen in public to take Seth anywhere. A feeling of excitement washed over him as he thought about where they could be going.

They stopped by Dean apartment soon enough, and Seth couldn't conceal his surprise when they stepped inside. It was certainly an improvement from the old apartment.

The walls were clearly newly-painted. They were white, and the carpet was cream. The furniture was mainly black, and it was suprisingly neat. It was a fairly decent size and was decorated nicely. Seth had expected it to be better than Dean's old apartment but hadn't expected it to be _this _nice.

"God, Dean, this place is amazing," he commented, looking around in awe.

"Isn't it? I'm surprised I managed to get a place like this so quickly."

"How much does it cost to rent?"

"Eh, more than my last apartment. But it's worth it. I've had money saved up for a while and now I'm not with Justice, I have some of the money we had saved up together, as well. The only bother I have with this place is how much effort it takes to clean," Dean chuckled, walking over to one of the doors. "I'll only be a minute, but you can sit down, if you want."

Seth nodded and sat down in one of the black armchairs. He looked down at the pristine carpet and was immediately glad that his shoes were fairly clean.

Dean had exited the bedroom not long after. He was wearing a pair of black trousers, a black suit jacket and a white shirt. The top two buttons were undone, however, and he was still wearing a pair of white trainers which stopped the outfit from looking completely formal. Seth knew he would prefer it like this, however. It suited Dean more.

"Like what you see?" Dean winked, and Seth blushed when he realised how long he had been staring.

"Very," he mumbled. Dean laughed and walked over to place a kiss on Seth's lips.

"So do I," he said quietly, brushing a few strands of Seth's hair behind his ear.

"I look so underdressed, now," said Seth, looking down at his outfit - a band T-shirt, a black and red tartan shirt, black skinny jeans and black converses.

"Nah, you're fine," said Dean, and he started to button up Seth's shirt. He left the top button undone but it still covered the T-shirt. "Yeah, definitely fine."

"You sure?"

"I've never been more sure in my life."

Dean grinned and placed a kiss on top of Seth's forehead.

"Come on, let's go."

* * *

><p>The date was another unexpected surprise for Seth. The fact that he was on a date wasn't what had surprised him - it was <em>where <em>he had been taken on a date.

He could recall coming to this restaurant when he was younger for his birthday with his mother, but hadn't been since as his parents had a different favourite place to dine with the family as this place was more suitable for couples. It was a gorgeous restaurant, with the most beautiful decoration. The atmosphere was very romantic, and Seth was only able to stare for a few moments. He stayed silent when him and Dean were guided to their table.

"Thank you," Dean nodded, and grinned at Seth. "What's up? Is this too much?"

"No, it's just..." Seth looked around the room before speaking again. "I just wasn't expecting this."

"Well, your mom told me how much you loved this place," Dean shrugged.

"You didn't have-"

"Don't start this again Seth," Dean chuckled. "I honestly don't mind. Just enjoy it."

"I've never had someone who wanted to treat me like this before."

"Then they didn't see how much you deserve this."

Seth's smile grew when Dean placed a hand on his. Their eyes stayed locked on each other before a waiter walked over to the table.

"What drinks shall you be having this evening?"

"Just a sparkling water for me," said Seth, looking up.

"I'll have a red wine," said Dean, his eyes only glancing at the waiter for a moment before they looked back down on Seth.

"Certainly," the waiter smiled, and handed them both a menu. "I will return shortly with your drinks."

Seth couldn't help but chuckle when the waiter walked away, and Dean raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?"

"I didn't expect you to be the wine type."

"Well, did you also expect me to be a romantic restaurant type?" he questioned, and laughed when Seth shook his head. "I guess I'm full of surprises."

"You definitely are," Seth grinned and began to look through the menu. "There's so much to choose. I forgot how much they have here."

"Do you want a starter?"

"I don't think I'll be able to eat that much!" Seth laughed, shaking his head.

"Judging by the portions you get here, I don't think I would be able to either," said Dean, looking around. "I'm definitely having a dessert, though."

"I think I'll join you there."

"Any ideas on what you're having?" Dean questioned. Seth looked thoughtful for a moment before he smiled.

"The smoked salmon, I think. Is that price alright, though?"

"I've already said it's all okay," Dean chuckled. "I'm probably just going to have the steak. It's always been my favourite."

"It doesn't surprise me, really," Seth grinned.

A few minutes later they had ordered their food, and were sitting with their drinks, though their eyes were fixed on each other again.

"How did someone like me end up with someone like you?" Dean murmured, a small smirk growing on his face at Seth's blush.

"Maybe because you're amazing in every way?"

"Nah, I'm not. But you are. I'm not even joking. I can't see a flaw about you. You're perfect, Seth."

The small blush on Seth's face grew deeper and he smiled down at his hands.

"I'm serious, you know. I never knew that I'd be able to feel this strongly about someone, but... Well, I do. You mean a lot to me."

"You mean a lot to me too," Seth said quietly, his eyes looking back up at Dean.

He meant it. He had thought that he had cared about Sami - but what he had felt for Sami didn't seem like anything like what he felt about Dean. There had been something about him since Seth had entered his apartment for the first time. He had felt so at ease, despite the situation he was in. The way Dean had treated him had been protective from the start. At first it had just seemed like an attraction, but then he realised that they had a connection.

He had never known that anything like this could happen, and yet, it did. An event which was terrifying at first had changed his life for the better. It was hard to pull through, but he was glad he did. He was glad because it had led him to Dean.

There was the worry that the Authority could return, but he pushed that thought away. Even if anything, despite the odds, _did _happen, he knew that he had Dean by his side and that they would stay together.

Because they did, after all, care for each other, and Seth knew that wasn't going to change.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: ***Hides in corner and awaits negative reviews*

I'm still glad I got this done though BEFORE I go down to see my girlfriend. I'm so bloody excited oh my lord.

I may be writing a sequel to this and I will definitely be starting another story when I get back home. So don't worry about that ^^

Thank you for all the feedback and everything. I probably wouldn't finish_any _of my stories if it wasn't for my readers.

I hope you enjoyed it and look out for that new story!


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